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  4. Hymenophyllum demissum

Hymenophyllum demissum

Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/04/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Sori in pairs on ends of ultimate segments. Wellington.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 08/12/1984, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Drooping filmy fern.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>.
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/04/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Lower portions of fronds. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/04/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stipes and rachides. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/04/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stipe and lower rachis. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/04/2011, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 01/04/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Common name

drooping filmy fern, Irirangi, piripiri

Synonyms

Mecodium demissum (G. Forst.) Copel.; Hymenophyllum australe var. aucklandicum (Bosch) C.Chr.; Sphaerocionium demissum (G.Forst.) C.Presl; Trichomanes demissum G.Forst.; Hymenophyllum aucklandicum Bosch;

Family

Hymenophyllaceae

Authority

Hymenophyllum demissum (G. Forst.)Sw.

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.

HYMDEM

Chromosome number

2n = 72

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

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

Endemic. New Zealand: Kermadec (Raoul Island), North, South, Stewart, Chatham and Auckland Islands. Widespread except for the drier parts of the eastern South Island

Habitat

Coastal to montane in forest. Usually terrestrial where it typically forms dense carpets on the ground, on banks or on rotting logs. Also epiphytic, and then found mostly on the basal trunks of forest trees and tree ferns. Sometimes found in forest growing over boulders, rocks and on cliff faces.

Features

Terrestrial or epiphytic fern forming large patches made up of numerous densely (more rarely diffuse) packed fronds. Rhizomes long-creeping, slender. Stipes 40-170 mm long, stout, pliant, wiry, glabrous usually not-winged, if winged then wing minute; rachises narrowly winged throughout. Laminae elliptic, ovate or narrowly ovate, 3-4-pinnate, 70-250 × 30-150 mm, pale green to dark green, glabrous. Ultimate segments oblong, margins smooth. Sori numerous on the terminal ends of the ultimate segments of the primary pinna. Indusial flap margins smooth or minutely toothed. Description adapted from Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (2000).

Similar taxa

Easily recognised by the extremely wiry usually un-winged stipe, large glabrous fronds, smooth-margined pinna segments, and when fertile by the numerous, narrow, paired sori. When dry the fronds of this species rarely curl up.

Flowering

N.A.

Flower colours

No flowers

Fruiting

N.A.

Life cycle

Minute spores are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Propagation technique

Difficult - should not be removed from the wild

Etymology

hymenophyllum: Membranous leaf, from the Greek humen and phullon

demissum: Drooping; from the latin demissus; referring to the leaves when the plant is perched on trees

Where To Buy

Not commerically availabe

Attribution

Fact Sheet Prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (17 April 2011). Description adapted from Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (2000).

References and further reading

Brownsey, P.J.; Smith-Dodsworth, J.C. 2000: New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants. Auckland, David Bateman

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): Hymenophyllum demissum Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/hymenophyllum-demissum/ (Date website was queried)

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