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  4. Hymenophyllum flabellatum

Hymenophyllum flabellatum

Franz Josef.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 16/01/1983, 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. Dome Walkway.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 15/07/2006, 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>
Silverstream Scenic Reserve, Upper Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 03/11/2006, 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. Silverstream Scenic Reserve, Upper Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 03/11/2006, 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: 23/04/2011, 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: 23/04/2011, 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>
Rhizome and base of stipe. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 23/04/2011, 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>
Scattered hairs on rachis. Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 23/04/2011, 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>
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Common name

filmy fern

Synonyms

Mecodium flabellatum (Labill.) Copel.; Hymenophyllum nitens R.Br.

Family

Hymenophyllaceae

Authority

Hymenophyllum flabellatum Labill.

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

  • 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

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

NZPCN Fact Sheet 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)

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