''Asplenium gracillimum'' is a fern species native to Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, also found in Stewart Island and the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

. The specific epithet ''gracillimum'' refers to the slender and graceful appearance of this fern.

Description

''A. gracillimum'' individuals occasionally grow small

bulbil A bulbil (also referred to as bulbel, bulblet, and/or pup) is a small, young plant that is reproduced vegetatively from axillary buds on the parent plant's stem or in place of a flower on an inflorescence. These young plants are clones of the par ...

s on top of their fronds, which can fall off and grow into new ferns. There are a number of similar Southern Hemisphere species which have a similar mode of reproduction, including '' A. daucifolium'' and '' Polystichum australiense''. Fronds range from 10.5 to 108 cm long. ''A. gracillimum'' has larger spores than '' A. bulbiferum'', and fewer bulbils. The scales are ovate on ''A. bulbiferum'', but narrower and almost always drawn out into thin threadlike points in A. gracillimum (filiform apices). The selected

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

was Dannevirke, New Zealand.

Taxonomy

The species is an

allotetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...

hybrid between '' A. bulbiferum'' and '' A. hookerianum''. It was previously known as ''Asplenium bulbiferum'' subsp. ''gracillimum''. A 2020 plastid phylogeny of ''Asplenium'' showed a sample of the species nested within a clade containing both of its parents.

Distribution and habitat

The hen and chicken fern commonly grows in most bush areas in New Zealand. It thrives in many situations from shade to partial sunlight. Often seen in moist or rainforest areas in eastern Australia, occasionally as an epiphyte on tree ferns or tree trunks.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17170535 Asplenium Ferns of New Zealand Flora of the Chatham Islands Ferns of Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Queensland Flora of South Australia Garden plants of New Zealand House plants