Asplenium shuttleworthianum
Common names
Shuttleworth’s spleenwort
Biostatus
Native
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Ferns
Detailed description
Rhizome short, erect, bearing red-brown, linear attenuate scales. Stipes up to 150 mm long, green above, brown below, sparingly covered in small linear scales with long filiform apices. Laminae oblong to elliptic, 150–900 × 100–250 mm, yellow-green, coriaceous, 3- to 4-pinnate. Raches green, almost lacking scales, prominently grooved. Pinnae ovate to narrowly ovate, acuminate, stalked, up to 120 × 50 mm. Secondary pinnae linear to lanceolate, up to 15 × 2 mm, often pinnatifid. Ultimate segments linear, subacute, slightly expanded in the region of the sori. Sori near tips of ultimate segments, solitary, broad, submarginal, c. 2 mm long.
Similar taxa
Of the New Zealand asplenia this species is most likely to be confused with A. appendiculatum (Labill.) C.Presl which is not known from the Kermadec Islands but distinguished from its very glossy, bright to dark green more heavily divided fronds, its very large spores, and by the characteristic broadening of the ultimate pinnules in the region of the sori.
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: Kermadec Islands (Meyer Islands, Raoul Island, McCauley Island). A tropical species widespread in the Pacific and reaching its world southern limit on the Kermadec Islands.
Habitat
Coastal to montane. In scrub, forest, or on shaded rock ledges. May be found either on the ground or as an epiphyte.
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2022-2023 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Previous assessments can be found here.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – these interim threat classification statuses has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. 2024. Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2023 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp, TO
Threats
A Naturally Uncommon, range-restricted endemic at its world southern limit. Although not that common on the Kermadec Islands, this is natural rather than induced and there are no known threats.
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Aspleniaceae
Synonyms
Asplenium flaccidum var. shuttleworthianum (Kunze) Hook.f.; Asplenium bulbiferum var. shuttleworthianum (Kunze) G.M.Thomson
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Ecology
Life cycle and dispersal
Minute spores are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grown. However, as it is cold sensitive it is best grown indoors. An excellent and very attractive pot plant. Like all other asplenia it is prone to scale and mealy bug infestations, which if let uncontrolled can be devastating.
Other information
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.
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.
ASPSHU
Chromosome number
2n = c.288
Previous conservation statuses
2017 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp, TO
2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, SO, Sp
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: SO, OL
2004 | Range Restricted
Referencing and citations
References and further reading
Brownsey PJ. 1977. A taxonomic revision of the New Zealand species of Asplenium. New Zealand Journal of Botany 15(1): 39–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.1977.10429618.
Thorsen MJ, Dickinson KJM, Seddon PJ. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2009.06.001.
Attribution
Description from Brownset (1977)