Asplenium gracillimum
Common name
hen & chicken fern
Synonyms
Asplenium bulbiferum subsp. gracillimum (Colenso) Brownsey
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.
ASPGRA
Chromosome number
2n = 288
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, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands. Also in Australia
Habitat
Coastal to subalpine. Usually in lowland forest where it is a common species of the ground-layer, especially in high rainfall areas. Commonly associated with riparian forest, and as a species of base-rich substrates but also typical of colluvium and stream side banks. It is commonly sympatric with A. bulbiferum. Asplenium gracillimum appears to have a higher altitudinal range than A. bulbiferum and is also more common in drier eastern forests than A. bulbiferum. Chatham Island populations of A. gracillimum are frequently bulbiferous.
Features
Rhizome short, stout, erect, bearing ovate scales up to 15 × 5 mm. Stipes 50-300 mm long, brown on underside, green above, stout, covered in small brown ovate scales with apices drawn into long filiform projections. Laminae lanceolate to elliptic, 0.15-1.20 m, 70-300 mm, bi- to tripinnate, sometimes bearing bulbils. Raches dark green to blue-green, rarely bulbiferous, scaly, prominently grooved. Pinnae 15-30 (or more) pairs, ovate to narrowly ovate, acuminate, shortly stalked, 30-200 × 10-50 mm, scaly on underside, basal pair pointing downwards when fresh. Secondary pinnae sessile or shortly stalked, very narrowly elliptic to ovate or elliptic, obtuse, deeply serrate or sometimes almost pinnate, decreasing in size from base to apex, basal acroscopic pinnule often enlarged (up to 40 × 10 mm). Ultimate pinnules narrowly oblong, ± entire to crenate-serrate, up to 10 mm long. Sori numerous, broad, submarginal, 2-4 mm long.
Similar taxa
Asplenium gracillimum is only ever likely to be confused with the closely related A. bulbiferum G.Forst. From that species it is distinguished by its infrequently bulbiferous, dark green to blue-green fronds, and stipe scales which have long filiform apices. Asplenium gracillimum is an octoploid (2n = 288) and A. bulbiferum tetraploid (2n = 144), so hybrids between these two species are sterile.
Flowering
Not applicable - spore producing
Flower colours
No flowers
Fruiting
Not applicable - spore producing
Life cycle
Minute spores are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grown, and popular in cultivation. However, most plants sold as this species are the sterile hybrid A. xlucrosum Perrie et Brownsey (A. bulbliferum x A. dimorphum Kunze). An excellent pot plant but as with all asplenia prone to infestations of scale and mealy bugs.
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.
gracillimum: Slender or most graceful; from the Latin gracilis
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.
Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2009 Vol. 11 No. 4 pp. 285-309