Either of two species of fern with delicate, hair-like stalks, especially
1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 178:Our common Maidenhair does from a number of hard black fibres, send forth a great many blacking shining brittle stalks, hardly a span long ....
Designating various types of moss or flowering plants.
2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA 2003, p. 318:The ‘maidenhair’ in maidenhair moss, for instance, does not refer to the hair on the maiden's head.
