Asplenium flabellifolium
Common name
butterfly fern, walking fern, necklace fern
Synonyms
Chamaefilix flabellifolium (Cav.) Farw.; Asplenium flabellifolium var. ramosum Colenso
Family
Aspleniaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Ferns
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
ASPFLB
Chromosome number
2n = 277-280
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2012 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: North and South mostly easterly from the Bay of Islands. Also present in Australia
Habitat
Coastal to subalpine. Usually in dry rocky ground, on lava and scoria fields, in grassy areas, within scrub, or along river banks in moderately open alluvial forest. Never found in deep shade or dense forest.
Features
Rhizome short, erect, bearing dark brown subulate scales with long filiform apices up to 6 × 5 mm. Stipes 1-10 cm long, green or yellow-green, slender, lacking scales. Laminae linear, 70-250 × 10-25 mm, light green, flaccid and often prostrate, pinnate. Raches green, weak, lacking scales, frequently extending beyond the uppermost pinnae and rooting at their apices. Pinnae 8-25 pairs, gradually decreasing in size from base to apex, fan shaped, crenate-dentate, cuneate at base, lowest 5-15 × 5-20 mm. Sori radiating along veins, up to 6 mm long.
Similar taxa
Recognised by the distinctive lax green or yellow-green fronds which root at the apices, are < 30 mm wide and usually have > 8 pairs of fan-shaped pinnae; and by the stipe and rachis which lack scales.
Flowering
Not applicable - spore producing
Flower colours
No flowers
Fruiting
Not applicable - spore producing
Propagation technique
Easily grown. An excellent pot and hanging basket fern. Can be slow establish. Prefers semi-shade, and should be planted in a fertile, free draining soil, or among rocks.
Etymology
asplenium: From the Greek a- ‘without’ and splene ‘spleen’, a northern hemisphere species, the black spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigrum), was once believed to be a cure for diseases of the spleen.
flabellifolium: Fan-shaped foliage; from the Latin flabellum and folium
Where To Buy
Occasionally sold by plant and specialist native plant nurseries.
Attribution
Description from Brownsey (1977)
References and further reading
Brownsey, P.J. 1977: A taxonomic revision of the New Zealand species of Asplenium. New Zealand Journal of Botany 15: 39-86.