Hymenophyllum flabellatum
Common name
filmy fern
Synonyms
Mecodium flabellatum (Labill.) Copel.; Hymenophyllum nitens R.Br.
Family
Hymenophyllaceae
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.
HYMFLA
Chromosome number
2n = 72
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 | Not Threatened
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Indigenous. Kermadec, North, South (except eastern part of South Island), Stewart, Chatham, Auckland and Antipodes Islands. Also Australia (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania); Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti.
Habitat
Coastal to montane forest. Often epiphytic, especially on tree fern trunks, but also on shaded or sheltered, damp rocks, cliff faces, and overhanging banks
Features
Rhizome long creeping, wiry, branched, 0.3-0.8 mm diameter, tan-coloured, with opaque villous hairs but tomentose at the stipe junction. Fronds 20-80 mm long, peundulous, rarely suberect. Stipe wiry, flexuose, 8-20 mm long, unwinged, with scattered pale-white or yellow hairs extending along main rachis. Lamina yellow-green, very variable in size and shape, oblong-linear to ovate-lanceolate (dwarfed fronds often broadly deltoid to round), 20-270 × 10-65 mm; primary division pinnate in the lower part, deeply pinnatifid above; pinnae or primary laminal segments oblique, 1-2-pinnatifid, flabellate, ovate or rhombic. Ultimate segments linear, 0.5-2.2 mm wide, glabrous to glabrescent; margins entire, 1-2-cells thick, apex obtuse, occasionally emarginate. Sori numerous; involucre ovate to rotund, bilabiate to below the middle. 0.5-2.0 × 0.5-2.0 mm; base broadly and shallowly cuneate; margins entire; receptacle included or slightly exserted. Description adapted from Bostock & Spokes (1998) and Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (2000).
Similar taxa
Only likely to be confused with the montane to subalpine, much less common endemic Hymenophyllum rufescens, which is a much smaller plant (up to 50 mm long), with deltoid fronds whose pinnae are covered in reddish, long, flexuose hairs. Hymenophyllum flabellatum and H., rufescens are rarely found growing together, occasional intermediates have been found, some of which are suggestive that both species may at times hybridise.
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.
Etymology
hymenophyllum: Membranous leaf, from the Greek humen and phullon
flabellatum: Fan shaped; from the Latin flabellum; shape of the leaves
Where to Buy
Not commercially available
Attribution
Fact Sheet Prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (July 2009). Description adapted from Bostock & Spokes (1998) and 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
Bostock, P.D.; Spokes, T.M. 1998: Hymenophyllaceae: Flora of Australia 48: 116-148.
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
Citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Hymenophyllum flabellatum Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/hymenophyllum-flabellatum/ (Date website was queried)