Asplenium parvum

Aspleniaceae

Asplenium parvum Watts

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/105798

Lithophytic ferns with erect or semi-erect fronds. Rhizome short-creeping, scaly. Stipe and rachis dark red-brown throughout, bearing abundant short glandular hairs; stipe 2–20 cm long, 0.2–2 mm diam. Lamina narrowly elliptic or narrowly ovate, pinnate, 4–50 cm long, 1.6–11 cm wide, bronze-green, with very sparse, glandular hairs on lower surface. Pinnae in 10–25 pairs, narrowly ovate; bases unequally cuneate, shortly stalked; margins slightly serrate in small specimens, deeply and slightly irregularly toothed in large specimens; apices acuminate; longest pinnae near middle, 8–70 mm long, 5–10 mm wide, gradually reducing upwards to an acuminate pinnatifid apical portion. Sori to 8 mm long. Perispores dark, reticulate, fenestrate; exospores 30.7–33.7 × 19.5–21.9 µm (means).

Mt Windsor Tableland to Eungella in NE QLD. Also in Malesia and Pacific Islands.

Epiphytic or lithophytic in high-rainfall montane vine forest.

This species is unique among Australian Asplenium in having glandular hairs on the stipe and rachis.

Similar to Asplenium polyodon but distinguished by A. parvum having abundant short glandular hairs on its stipe and rachis and by its shorter pinnae.