Asplenium lamprophyllum
Synonyms
None
Family
Aspleniaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
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.
ASPLAM
Chromosome number
2n = 144
Current conservation status
The threat classification 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) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website 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. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Endemic. New Zealand: North Island (Te Paki south to near Wanganui and the northern Hawkes Bay but only common north of Mokau and Gisborne)
Habitat
Coastal to montane. Mostly found within alluvial forest, always in shaded sites or on the buttresses of swamp trees, or in other forested areas on free draining soils, on clay banks, or on basalt or limestone rock outcrops and rock strewn ground. Usually forming carpet over extensive areas.
Features
Rhizome creeping, up to 150 mm long, pale green with a few scattered scales, stoloniferous. Stipes 60-200 mm long, pale green above, brown below, deeply grooved, covered in small, very dark, triangular to ovate scales which have thick cell walls. Laminae lanceolate to elliptic, 150-600 × 70-200 mm, light green, glossy above, thin, bipinnate. Raches green, scaly, prominently grooved. Pinnae 12-20 pairs, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, acuminate, stalked, 30-100 × 5-25 mm, scaly on underside; lower pinnae themselves pinnate, upper ones pinnatifid. Pinnules sessile or shortly stalked, elliptic, often deeply serrate, 10-20 × 5-15 mm. Sori 3-10 mm long, nearer mid-vein than margin. Sporangia orange brown.
Similar taxa
Recognised by the widely creeping, stoloniferous growth habit, bright green, membranous, glossy above, paler below, 2- or more pinnate fronds which lack bulbils, and orange-brown sporangia. The fresh fronds, when crushed characteristically smell of oil of winter green.
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 but rather slow. Does best in a semi-shaded site, planted within a deep, rich, free draining soil. A beautiful plant that deserves to be more widely cultivated.
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.
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
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Asplenium lamprophyllum Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/asplenium-lamprophyllum/ (Date website was queried)