Asplenium capitisyork

Aspleniaceae

Asplenium capitisyork D.L.Jones

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/105278

Cape York Spleenwort

Lithophytic ferns forming large clumps with semi-erect fronds. Rhizome short-creeping, scaly. Stipe and rachis dark chocolate brown, becoming green near apices, brittle, abundantly scaly; stipe 5–25 cm long, 1–2 mm diam.; rachis usually proliferous below terminal pinna. Lamina narrowly elliptic or narrowly ovate, pinnate, 20–45 cm long, 5–8 cm wide, dark green above, pale below; underside scaly; veins conspicuous. Pinnae in 15–25 pairs, ovate or narrowly ovate, with an enlarged basal acroscopic lobe; bases unequally cuneate, shortly stalked; margins ±doubly serrate; apices obtuse to acuminate; longest pinnae at or below the middle, 2.5–4.5 cm long, 12–16 mm wide, gradually reducing upwards, usually ending in a large terminal segment. Sori to 10 mm long. Perispores pale with smooth broad prominent ridges and smooth lacunae; exospores 32.1–40.8 µm long, 21.8–24.8 µm wide (means).

Endemic to Cape York Peninsula QLD from Maloney Springs to the McIlwraith Range.

Lithophytic on granite boulders piles in rainforest or on boulders in stream beds.

Can be locally abundant forming large colonies and is deciduous in drought years. An attractive horticultural fern. This may be conspecific with species from Papua New Guinea.

This species is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental fern. It is easiest to grow in a container of coarse free draining mix or on a rock in a tropical fernery or moist shaded rock garden.

Asplenium paleaceum and Asplenium carnarvonense are similar in frond and pinnae shape but they differ in their distribution.