Botrychium australe
Common name
parsley fern, patotara
Synonyms
Botrychium ternatum var. australe (R.Br.) Domin; Botrychium australe var. erosum (Milde) Prantl; Botrychium cicutarium var. virginicum (Hook.f.) Linds.; Botrychium ternatum var. erosum (Milde) Milde; Botrychium virginicum sensu Hook.f.; Sceptridium australe (R.Br.) Lyon; Botrychium australe var. typicum R.T.Clausen; Botrychium cicutarium sensu Hook.f.; Botrychium erosum Milde; Botrychium ternatum sensu F.Muell.
Family
Ophioglossaceae
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.
BOTAUS
Chromosome number
2n = 90
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 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, EF, SO
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP, SO, EF
2004 | Sparse
Distribution
Indigenous. Throughout North and South Islands with one old Chatham Island record. Present in Australia, Papua New Guinea and South America.
Habitat
Lowland to alpine. A species of open ground, short and tall tussock grassland, forest clearings, shrubland, river flats, reverting pasture and seasonally flooded ground. It has also been collected from the margins of peat bogs in the Huntly Basin, lower Waikato.
Features
Red-green (bronze) to bright green, fleshy to succulent plant. Roots thick, fleshy, distinctly ridged and contracted. Sterile laminae 1(-2), stalked, broadly ovate or 5-angled, divided 3-5-times, 30-250 x 30-150 mm, the ultimate segments blunt-ended, 1-7 mm wide. Fertile laminae 1(-2) borne on a narrower but longer stalk, fertile portion shorter and narrower than sterile laminae, divided 3-5-times, bearing numerous, spherical, yellow-brown sporangia up to c.10 mm diam.
Similar taxa
Closest to Botrychium biforme Colenso from which it differs mainly by its less divided, blunt-ended sterile frond segments. The roots of B. australe are distinctly ridged and contracted. Those of B. biforme are not.
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
Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild.
Threats
Generally uncommon and of sporadic distribution. In some habitats it can be locally abundant, but in many places it is now scarce. There is some evidence of losses happening in the northern part of its range but as yet this seems insufficient to warrant a higher threat listing
Etymology
botrychium: Bunch of grapes; from the Greek botrus; grape like spore clusters
australe: Southern, from the Latin australis
Attribution
Fact Sheet by P.J. de Lange 6 June 2005. Description from Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (2000).
References and further reading
Brownsey, P.J.; Smith-Dodsworth, J.C. 2000: New Zealand ferns and allied plants. David Bateman Ltd, Auckland
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 11: 285-309.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Botrychium australe Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/botrychium-australe/ (Date website was queried)