Hymenophyllum malingii
Common name
filmy fern
Synonyms
Apteropteris malingii(Hook.) Copel.; Sphaerocionium malingii (Hook.) K. Iwats.; Trichomanes malingii Hook.
Family
Hymenophyllaceae
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.
HYMMAL
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
Endemic. North and South Islands from Te Moehau and Mt Pirongia south throughout the western parts of the South Island, and also around Dunedin.
Habitat
Montane to subalpine. Usually on the dead or dying trunks of kaikawaka (Libocedrus bidwillii) but also occasionally found on Hall’s totara (Podocarpus cunninghamii), rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), Halocarpus biformis, beech (Fuscospora and Lophozonia spp.) and on moss covered boulders, rocks and cliff faces
Features
Epiphytic (rarely rupestral) fern forming dense to diffuse pendulous patches. Rhizomes long-creeping, gracile, rather brittle. Stipes 30-100 mm long, thin, brittle, not winged, densely covered in grey-red stellate hairs, rachises not winged. Laminae narrowly ovate or linear, 2-3-pinnate, greyish white to red-brown, 30-200 × 5-30 mm, all parts densely invested by stellate hairs, the adaxially grey and abaxially red-brown. Ultimate segments linear, rigid, tubular (round in cross-section), margins smooth. Sori terminating ultimate segments. Indusial flaps densely hairy.
Similar taxa
Easily recognised by its peculiar preference for the trunks of usually dead or dying kaikawaka, narrow, grey-white to red-brown colour, and by the narrow, tubular ultimate segments which are densely covered in grey or red-brown stellate hairs.
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
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Attribution
Fact Sheet Prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (18 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 malingii Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/hymenophyllum-malingii/ (Date website was queried)