Hymenasplenium wildii

Aspleniaceae

Hymenasplenium wildii (F.M.Bailey) D.J.Ohlsen

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/51251675

Wild's Spleenwort

Lithophytic ferns. Rhizome short-creeping, scaly. Stipe and rachis mostly dark brown, becoming green near apex, ±glabrous; stipe 3–8 cm long, 0.2–0.5 mm diam. Lamina ovate or narrowly ovate, pinnate, 4–9 cm long, 2.5–4 cm wide, thin, ±glabrous. Pinnae in 5–8 pairs; basal ones ±ovate; others ±oblong; apices acute and sometimes curving acroscopically; margins bluntly and irregularly serrate; basal basiscopic portion excised so that each pinna appears to be joined to a short stalk in the lower corner; longest pinnae below middle, 14–25 mm long, 9–11 mm wide, gradually decreasing upwards to an acute pinnatifid apical portion. Sori to 5 mm long. Perispores dark with serrate wings and tuberculate or ribbed lacunae; exospores 28.6 µm × 20.4 µm (mean).

Considered endemic to NE QLD, where it is known from a small area near Daintree but also historically recorded from the Cairns region. There is a putative collection from the Philippines.

Terrestrial on steep mudbanks or lithophytic on rocks in streambeds in lowland high rainfall humid vine forest.

Named after the original collector, C.J. Wild, who made botanical collections in the Daintree region in the late 1800's.

Not known to be in cultivation.

Hymenasplenium unilaterale and Hymenasplenium excisum.

1a.  Pinnae 5–8 pairs, pinnae < than 2.5 cm long, lowland habitat = Hymenasplenium wildii

1b.  Pinnae 9 or more pairs, pinnae > 2.5 cm long, montane habitat = 2.

2a.  Frond apex attenuate, basal pair of pinnae deflexed, lateral pinnae deeply excised = Hymenasplenium excisum

2b. Frond apex not attenuate, basal pair of pinnae not deflexed, lateral pinnae not deeply excised = Hymenasplenium unilaterale