Etymology Viride means green.

Description Rhizome: erect, short, branching, scales clathrate, dark brown to black, to 4 mm.
Frond: 18 cm high by 1.2 cm wide, evergreen, somewhat dimorphic, fertile fronds stiff, erect, sterile prostrate, only to 10 cm, blade/stipe ratio: 1:1 to 6:1.
Stipe: reddish brown at base, green distally, lustrous, dark reddish brown to black, narrowly triangular scales grading into glandular hairs, vascular bundles: 2 C-shaped, back to back, uniting to 1 upwards in an X-shape.
Blade: 1-pinnate, linear, widest above the middle, tapering to either end, thin, pale green, glabrous or with sparse minute hairs.
Pinnae: 6 to 21 pair, rhombic or ovate, apex rounded to acute, sometimes toothed, subopposite; costae indistinct; margins crenate or entire; veins free, forked.
Sori: linear, 1.5 mm, 1-2 pairs per pinna, paired across the midrib, indusium: white or translucent, thin, entire, often deciduous, on one side of the sorus, sporangia: brown, maturity: midsummer to late fall.
Dimensionality: pinnae tilted forward in lower part of blade.

Culture Habitat: limestone crevices. Distribution: circumpolar, but extending far south to Mexico, North Africa, Formosa. Hardy to -40°C, USDA Zone 2.

Distinctive Characteristics The green rachis sets it aside from the other 1-pinnate spleenworts.

Synonyms
Asplenium trichomanes-ramosum Linnaeus