What sort of fern did I inherit and what should I do with it?

Factual Questions
1

It has been living in the same small metal pot (with no drainage) on the top of my grandmother’s toilet the entire 34 years of my life. She’s now living at a nursing home and this fern, an antique dresser, and a piano stool are (I’m happy to say) the only items I’ve managed to bring home with me in the Great Exodus of Grandma’s Lifetime Collection of Stuff.

Unfortunately, the poor fern was basically abandoned and forgotten in her empty house with no water since July, when my grandma moved and all of her other houseplants were adopted.

This is the state in which it came home with me. The (prolific) rhizomes are fuzzy and seem dry, but are sprouting fiddleheads quite nicely since I’ve been watering it.

More mature fronds are here and here.

It looks like a Hare’s Foot Fern, but only based on some of the images I’ve found online. It looks a lot like this, and this but nothing like this.

My questions…

Should I re-pot it? I can’t even really tell what substrate it is planted in. It seems like what were once loose pebbles that are now incorporated into some dense rhizome/pebble mass. And there is some as-yet-unidentified white flaky stuff that seems to be sprinkled-upon/attached-to the top. My grandma’s house has really hard water, and my mom guesses the white stuff is a few decade’s worth of mineral build-up of some kind. The lack of drainage with the metal pot concerns me as well.

If I were to clip a couple of the inches of rhizome one either side of a sprouting fiddlehead and plant that in a new pot, will I end up with a dozen little viable ferns?

I’m basically trying to decide if I should split it up for its own good, or try and transplant the whole enchilada.

Thanks for any fernly assistance.

2

It looks like a Davallia species (one kind of hare’s-foot fern). The one you linked to that didn’t look like it was an entirely different genus (but still called a rabbit’s- or hare’s-foot fern). That’s why you can’t rely on common names.

I’d use the care suggestions for Davallias.

Oh, and yes, those fuzzy rhizomes should propagate new fern plants.

Oh, should you repot it? Sorry. I’d say that if it’s lived 34 years like that, your grandma must have been doing something right. I’d keep the main plant intact, possibly repotting, if you feel like you must, but maybe choosing a plastic pot or something that doesn’t drain too quickly. Ferns tend to like staying moist.

I’d also start new plants with some of the rhizomes, though. Why limit yourself to just one of what has proven to be an incredibly reliable plant? I don’t have FRIENDS who’ve lasted 34 years…that plant’s kind of impressive, ya know?

3

Yeah I think I’ll try and re-pot it, very carefully, and try and clip off a few rhizome babies too. The pot it is in just seems like a teacup worth of soil at most (if there is any soil left at all) I just poured off a good 1/4 of a cup of brown water after watering this week, and I’m worried that I’ll over-water it if I don’t re-pot it.

This is the most detailed care page I’ve found, but I’ll keep looking a bit more.