Asplenium polyodon
Common name
sickle spleenwort
Synonyms
Asplenium falcatum Lam.; Asplenium adiantoides var. polyodon (G.Forst.) C.Chr.; Asplenium falcatum var. caudatum sensu Allan; Tarachia falcata (Lam.) C.Presl; Tarachia polyodon (G.Forst.) C.Presl; Trichomanes adiantoides L.; Asplenium forsterianum Colenso; Tarachia adiantoides (L.) Nakai ex Tuyama; Asplenium adiantoides (L.) C.Chr.; Asplenium caudatum sensu Hook.f.; Asplenium falcatum sensu A.Rich.
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.
ASPPOL
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 | Qualifiers: SO
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: Kermadec, Three Kings, North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands. Also Madagascar, Indo-Malaysian, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. In the South Island mainly western, in the east found as far south as Bull Creek on the coast south of Dunedin
Habitat
Coastal to montane. In scrub and dense forest, often as an epiphyte but also on rock outcrops, fallen logs and on the ground.
Wetland plant indicator status rating
Information derived from the revised national wetland plant list prepared to assist councils in delineating and monitoring wetlands (Clarkson et al., 2021 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Contract Report LC3975 for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council). The national plant list categorises plants by the extent to which they are found in wetlands and not ‘drylands’. The indicator status ratings are OBL (obligate wetland), FACW (facultative wetland), FAC (facultative), FACU (facultative upland), and UPL (obligate upland).
UPL: Obligate Upland
Rarely is a hydrophyte, almost always in uplands (non-wetlands).
Features
Rhizome stout, short creeping, densely covered in red-brown, narrowly triangular scales up to 10 × l mm. Stipes 100-300 mm long, dark brown, stiff, densely covered in scales similar to but smaller than those of the rhizome. Laminae lanceolate, 250-500 (or more) × 100-200 mm, dark green and glossy above, paler and dull below, frequently pendulous, pinnate. Raches dark chocolate brown, very scaly. Pinnae 25 (or more) pairs, narrowly angular-ovate to ovate, sometimes with a large rounded basal acroscopic lobe, acuminate, doubly serrate, 50-100 × 10-20 mm, scaly and with prominent veins on underside. Sori often slightly curved away from the midrib, up to 2 mm long.
Similar taxa
Recognised by the simply pinnate frond which are > 30 mm wide; by the dark chocolate brown rachis; and by the pinnae irregularly and doubly serrate
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
Rather slow growing but a very attractive species which is excellent in a pot, on a shaded rock wall, or planted in a free draining, moist, fertile soil under tall trees.
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