Aspleniaceae
Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition
Asplenium parvum
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.
Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/intro/index.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).
Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) ‘Platycerium superbum’, in Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/entities/platycerium_superbum.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).