Notogrammitis billardierei
Common name
common strap fern
Synonyms
Polypodium billardieri (Willd.) C.Chr.; Grammitis australis R.Br.; Grammitis humilis Hombr.; Polypodium australe (R.Br.) Mett.; Grammitis billardierei Willd.; Grammitis meridionalis Parris
Family
Polypodiaceae
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.
GRABIL
Chromosome number
2n = 74
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. New Zealand. North, South, Stewart, Chatham, Antipodes and Auckland Islands - from Warawara Forest south (not common north of Auckland on the Northland Peninsula). Also Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania)
Habitat
Coastal to subalpine, though usually montane in the northern part of its range. A common low epiphyte in mostly closed forest on a range of trees and tree ferns, also commonly seen growing on mossy hummocks, rotting logs, clay banks, cliff faces, boulders and rubble slopes in dense forest.
Features
Epiphytic, terrestrial or rupestral fern. Rhizome erect to short-creeping, rarely long-creeping; paleae light brown, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, acute to broadly acute, 2.2-6.3 × 0.48-1.5 mm. Stipes indistinct, winged almost to base; stipe hairs whitish to pale red-brown, sparse to common, 0.3-1.5 mm. Lamina (26-)56-136(-245) × (3-)3.9-6.9(-ll) mm; linear-oblanceolate, rarely elliptic to oblanceolate, acute or rarely obtuse, lamina hairs to 1.0 mm; sparse to absent on margin, midrib and lamina, similar to those on the stipe; texture thinly coriaceous to coriaceous; veins visible or invisible, rarely raised on upper and lower surface in dried material, endings not darkened; midrib raised below, usually darker than lamina. Sori oblong to linear, oblique, in upper and middle part of frond, 2-27 pairs, 1.5-7.5 × 1.0-2.0 mm; soral vein ending within the sorus or extending a little beyond it, shorter than basiscopic vein, neither reaching the margin. Sporangia (150-)177.5-208.9(-260) microns long; indurated cells of annulus (9-)10.4-12.4(-15). Spores (18-)23.3-26.1(-31) microns diameter.
Similar taxa
Easily distinguished by the tufted growth habit, erect or very shortly creeping rhizomes, fronds that are 56-135 mm long, more or less exstipitate, and bearing unicelluar hairs (at least on the stipe), and by the absence of hairs from the soral area
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
notogrammitis: From the Greek noto- ‘southern’ and gramma ‘line’, referring to this new genus of southern strap ferns which were previously in Grammitis.
billardierei: Named after Jacques Houttou de Labillardiere (1755-1834), 19th century French botanist who described several New Zealand plants
Where to Buy
Not commercially available
Taxanomic notes
The New Zealand species of Grammitis along with Ctenopteris heterophylla and one Australian Grammitis (G. garrettii) one Lord Howe (G. diminuta) and one species endemic to the Moluccas and Indonesian (G. kairatuensis) have traditionally been placed in Grammitis (Parris & Given 1976; Parris 1998). However, these species (with the exception of G. diminuta, G. kairatuensis and G. stenophylla; B.S.Parris pers. comm. to P.J. de Lange January 2011) have now been transferred to a new genus, Notogrammitis Parris (Perrie & Parris 2012). Notogrammitis crassior is the fern that has been known in New Zealand for some time, incorrectly (see Perrie & Parris 2012) as Grammitis poepiggiana.
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (Updated 25 April 2011). Description from Parris & Given (1976).
References and further reading
Parris, B.S. 1998: Grammitidaceae. Flora of Australia 48: 450-468.
Parris, B.S.; Given, D.R. 1976: A taxonomic revision of Grammitis Sw. (Grammitidaceae: Filicales) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 14:85-111.
Perrie, L.R.; Parris, B.S. 2012: Chloroplast DNA sequences indicate the grammitid ferns (Polypodiaceae) in New Zealand belong to a single clade, Notogrammitis gen. nov. New Zealand Journal of Botany 50: 457-472.
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): Notogrammitis billardierei Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/notogrammitis-billardierei/ (Date website was queried)