Category Archives: Ferns

NZ fern colonises Australia, twice

4 February 2011 – 10.38am
Asplenium hookerianum

Hooker's spleenwort fern. Near Levin, New Zealand. (c) Leon Perrie.

It is not just people crossing the ditch – a little New Zealand fern has also emigrated to Australia, and not just once but twice.

This is the first known case amongst ferns or seed plants of the same species dispersing twice across the Tasman Sea.

Hooker’s spleenwort fern, or Asplenium hookerianum, is a close relative of the hen & chickens ferns. Hooker’s spleenwort is widespread and common in New Zealand, but rare in Australia, with only a few, small populations in each of Victoria and Tasmania.

DNA analyses of the populations of Hooker’s spleenwort were carried out by researchers from Te Papa, Massey University, and the University of Melbourne.

26 genetic variants were found in New Zealand, but only one each in Victoria and Tasmania. Not only are the Australian variants at the tips of the genetic family tree, they are more closely related to variants in New Zealand than to each other.

This research was recently published in the journal Australian Systematic Botany.  Email me if you would like a copy of the paper: leonp@tepapa.govt.nz

Many plant species are known to have dispersed across the Tasman Sea, in either direction. Numerous New Zealand species also occur in Australia (about 50% in ferns), and more have close relatives there. But, it remains an open question how common multiple dispersals within a species are.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Plants | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Fern Teaching Resource

10 November 2010 – 2.17pm

Ferns now feature on the Science Learning Hub.

Ferns at the Science Learning Hub.

Microsorum pustulatum, Hound's Tongue Fern. (c) Te Papa.

You can find out more about:

What exactly is a fern?

How ferns are identified and classified.

The origins of New Zealand’s ferns.

The role of a botany curator.

The hen and chickens fern.

And a whole lot more…

Te Papa botanists Pat Brownsey and Leon Perrie contributed to this resource, supplying information and images, and were interviewed for some of the videos.

The Science Learning Hub aims to promote student interest and engagement in science by providing contemporary, contextualised resources for teachers based on New Zealand science research. Projects are aimed at Year 5-10 students. The Science Learning Hub is funded by the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology and managed by the University of Waikato.

Science Learning Hub home page.

More about ferns from Te Papa.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Plants | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Queensland attractions

16 September 2010 – 11.58am

Despite my previous post, Queensland’s rainforests were far from entirely unpleasant.  The below caught me eye (and of course there were lots of interesting ferns too!).

Heavily pigmented unfurling frond of Blechnum cartilagineum. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A lacy fungus. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

New Zealanders are pretty familiar with the koru, an unfurling fern frond. But Australia’s prickly tree fern, Cyathea leichhardtiana, does it a bit differently. It unfurls the leafy parts of a frond only after the “stem” parts of the frond (technically the rachis and the costae) are nearly fully extended. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Inflorescence of the root parasite Balanophora. This is related to New Zealand’s bat-pollinated Dactylanthus. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The attractive cycad Bowenia spectabilis. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

An unfurling frond of the Ptisana (Marattia) oreades, a relative of para, New Zealand’s king fern. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

New Zealand’s king fern.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Field trips, Plants | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Vampires in the leaf litter

15 September 2010 – 10.02am

There’s trauma in this leaf litter – can you see it?!

Dangerous leaf litter. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A downside to fieldwork in Australia is the number of things that will bite, impale, or otherwise injure.

A leech at attention, waiting for a meal to pass by. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Some of my unwanted Australian ‘friends’, that had been making themselves at home under my socks and long pants. Note the size difference between these post-feast leeches and the hungry one in the picture above. (No comments on my muscular legs please.) Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

We had several wet days when the leeches were out in force. At one site, half of our group suffered a leech in the eye – unpleasant!

For me, this was a somewhat traumatic introduction to these creatures. In New Zealand leeches do not make a habit of feeding on humans (generally preferring stream invertebrates instead). Biting ticks were another part of the fauna that made our close acquaintance.

A harmless (from our perspective) python. However, a deadly taipan had slithered across the track as we drove into the site. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The impressively armed leaf of what we believe is a Solanum (relative of tomato, potato, and poroporo). Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Spikes on the stems of rattan palms. These palms also had fine, hanging trendils, which were easy to walk into because they were hard to see, but difficult to subsequently escape because they had barbed spikes. Photos by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

A Dendrocnide stinger tree. This nettle-relative packs a particularly nasty poisonous punch if you have the misfortune to touch any part of it (including the trunk!). Not as ferocious-looking as our tree nettle, but I’m reliably informed the sting is worse. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

An echidna. A monotreme mammal like the platypus. Cute but spiky. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Field trips, Plants | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Queensland fern fieldwork

14 September 2010 – 6.53pm

I was recently in Queensland, Australia, working with colleagues from the University of Melbourne to collect ferns for DNA analyses.

We were principally after the spleenwort Asplenium ferns, and drove large distances in pursuit of the different species.

Asplenium carnarvonense is known only from a few gorges in inland southern Queensland. The gorges provide respite for ferns and other moisture-loving plants in what is otherwise an arid landscape. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Asplenium harmanii is a birds nest fern, related to the common cultivated A. australasicum. A. harmanii is distinguished by the tapering of its lower frond, and it is only found near the Queensland/NSW border. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Asplenium athertonense occurs in rainforest on the uplands inland of Cairns. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

27 of Australia’s 30 species of Asplenium occur in Queensland, which has a rich fern diversity. New Zealand has about 20 Asplenium species, with eight species shared across the Tasman. DNA sequencing will be used to determine how the Australian plants relate to those from New Zealand and elsewhere.

Te Papa’s fern research.

Asplenium ferns.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Field trips, Plants | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Big travels for little ferns

22 July 2010 – 11.46am

Lindsaea are small dainty ferns that are easily overlooked. Three species are indigenous to New Zealand.

Recent DNA-based research (Lehtonen et al. 2010) implies that each got here independently; i.e., there were three separate dispersal events. This is because the three species in New Zealand are each more closely related to an overseas species than to each other.

The three indigenous New Zealand species are:

Lindsaea trichomanoides (also in Australia) is related to L. rufa of New Caledonia.

Lindsaea trichomanoides. (c) Leon Perrie.

Lindsaea viridis (only found in New Zealand) is related to a group of species occurring from Madagascar through Malesia to western Polynesia.

Lindsaea viridis. (c) Leon Perrie.

Lindsaea linearis (also in Australia and New Caledonia) is related to L. microphylla of Australia.

Lindsaea linearis. (c) Leon Perrie

This is a common pattern. Many New Zealand ferns are also indigenous elsewhere. Of the species only found in New Zealand, many are more closely related to overseas species than to other New Zealanders. This indicates a comparatively high level of immigration and emigration.

Lehtonen S, Tuomisto H, Rouhan G, Christenhusz MJM (2010) Phylogenetics and classification of the pantropical fern family Lindsaeaceae. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 163: 305-359.

More on the origins of New Zealand’s ferns.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Plants | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Collections Online update: Taxonomy browser

22 June 2010 – 2.26pm

Since we released the new version of Collections Online  in July last year we’ve made the odd fix, or a new feature here and there. You probably don’t notice them but hopefully they’ve made your browsing experience a bit easier.  However recently we’ve done a couple of things we thought were worth pointing out. First up, one for those interested in the natural environment collections.    

Aptenodytes forsteri

Aptenodytes forsteri

 

Taxonomy Browser
Initially this may look like just one for the scientists out there, but I think it could help enthusiasts, and pretty much anybody else, get a bit more insight into the relationships between species of birds, plants and our other natural environment collections. A new taxonomy browser allows you to browse up and down the scientific classifications of our collection specimens.   

For example if you check out the specimen record  for this fine fellow (Emperor Penguin) at the right of the page you can see the new Related Taxa section, showing the classification hierarchy. In this new section click on Aptenodytes forsteri (Species) you jump into the species level record. This shows you the other specimens we have for that species. You can then browse up browse up to the broader level (Genus, Aptenodytes) where you can see all the species (and our specimens) that belong to that genus, or you can browse broader again up to the family record Spheniscidae (penguins), and so on. This also applies to our plant (try it with the ferns) and zoological collections, including the ever-popular spiders.   

Obviously it’s much easier to move around if you understand the latin names used in the Linnaean structure, but hopefully being able to browse around is at least a start for the non-scientists among us too.    

The next step is being able to browse humanities objects for a particular species using the correct taxonomic identification, allowing to see not  only our specimens, but objects in our art , photography, Taonga Maori, Pacific or History collections that feature that species.   

By Adrian Kingston | Also posted in Birds, Bugs, insects and spiders, Collections Online, Plants | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

New Fork Fern

21 May 2010 – 12.55pm

We have just described a new species of Tmesipteris fork fern.

Fork ferns are odd looking and only distantly related to other ferns.

Banks Peninsula fork fern, Tmesipteris horomaka. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

We now recognise five species in New Zealand. There are only about 15 species around the world, with Australasia their strong-hold.

The new species has been named Tmesipteris horomaka. It is only known from Banks Peninsula. Horomaka is a Maori name for Banks Peninsula.

The new fork fern is very rare. However, some of the other species in New Zealand are common, and frequently encountered hanging from the trunks of tree ferns. Look out for them – they are quite distinctive!

Banks Peninsula fork ferns epiphytic on ponga (Cyathea dealbata). Photo by Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The first indication of the new species came with the finding that some Banks Peninsula plants had double the chromosomes of other New Zealand fork ferns.  However, the new fork fern also differs in its leaf and reproductive characteristics.

Paper describing and distinguishing the new fork fern species.

Type specimen of Tmesipteris horomaka on Collections Online.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Plants | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Identifying Asplenium hookerianum in Victoria

10 March 2010 – 2.28pm

From our search in Victoria’s Alpine National Park, we suspect the rare Asplenium hookerianum (Hooker’s spleenwort) is actually much more common there than previously recognised. But more searching is needed to confirm this. 

Searching for Asplenium hookerianum in Victoria’s Alpine National Park. 

Asplenium hookerianum can be distinguished from the other ferns it occurs with in Victoria by its being fertile at a small size (c. 5 cm), with linear reproductive structures, and fronds that are twice divided with rounded frond segments. 

Small plants of Asplenium flabellifolium (necklace spleenwort) can resemble Asplenium hookerianum. However, the latter has bi-pinnate (twice divided) fronds, discernible at the base of even small fronds. 

A small frond of Asplenium hookerianum (Hooker’s spleenwort), Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

Asplenium flabellifolium (necklace spleenwort), Armidale, NSW, Australia. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

Asplenium hookerianum (left top and middle) and Asplenium flabellifolium, Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

 Polystichum proliferum (mother shield fern) and Cystopteris tasmanica (bladder fern) have frond segments with pointed apices and round rather than linear reproductive structures. Further, Polystichum proliferum usually does not become fertile until a size bigger than Asplenium hookerianum. 

Polystichum proliferum (mother shield fern), Toolangi, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie. © Leon Perrie, Wellington.

 Asplenium gracillimum (a hen & chickens fern) also usually does not become fertile until a size bigger than Asplenium hookerianum. The latter also differs in its frond segments being more stalked. 

Asplenium gracillimum (a hen & chickens fern), Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Plants | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Searching for a rare Australian fern

9 March 2010 – 5.08pm

While visiting family in Melbourne, I took the opportunity to go fern hunting.

Asplenium hookerianum (Hooker’s spleenwort), Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

Asplenium hookerianum is a rare fern in Australia.  With Melbourne University’s Daniel Ohlsen and Mike Bayly, we went searching for the two populations recorded from Victoria’s Alpine National Park. 

How to recognise Asplenium hookerianum in Victoria.

We were successful, relocating the known populations and finding a new one.  We recorded a total of 450-500 individuals, some 200 more than previously noted.

In Victoria, Asplenium hookerianum appears restricted to rock overhangs in deep gorges.  It was odd seeing it in Eucalyptus forest.  In New Zealand, Asplenium hookerianum is much less fussy, being common on the forest floor. 

Lara, pointing to Asplenium hookerianum on this rock wall, and Daniel. Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

Asplenium hookerianum habitat (at the bottom of this gorge), Alpine National Park, Victoria. Photo by Leon Perrie, Curator. © Museum of New Zealand.

We wonder whether the Australian populations are derived from New Zealand, or vice versa.  We hope to test this using DNA analyses.

Findings from our previous investigations of New Zealand Asplenium hookerianum:

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Field trips, Plants | Tagged , , , , | Comments (5)
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