Tag Archives: ferns

Going (Lady) Gaga over ferns

26 October 2012 – 8.48am

USA fern taxonomists have created a minor stir after re-classifying a group of central American ferns into a new genus named Gaga, after the singer Lady Gaga.

Abstract of the article formally naming the new genus Gaga.

Youtube video of the taxonomists discussing their research.

The researchers say the naming for Lady Gaga was in honour of “her articulate and fervent defence of equality and individual expression in today’s society”, linking the celebration of diversity within humans to the study of the intricate diversity in this group of ferns. Further, the Gaga ferns contain a stretch of DNA with the nucleotides GAGA that distinguish them from their close relatives. Lady Gaga also once wore a costume resembling a fern gametophyte (presumably not knowingly), and these taxonomists are apparently big fans of her music.

The rock fern, Cheilanthes sieberi, a New Zealand relative of the newly re-named Gaga ferns. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The 19 species of Gaga ferns were previously classified in the genus Cheilanthes. However, DNA analyses of evolutionary relationships have shown that Cheilanthes is composed of a multitude of unrelated groups, which are therefore undergoing extensive re-classification; Gaga is but one example. From our own research and that of others, it appears that the Cheilanthes in New Zealand are true Cheilanthes and won’t be re-classified.

Abstract of our paper examining the generic classification of New Zealand Pteridaceae, including Cheilanthes.

Naming new species or genera after people is not the ‘done thing’ amongst (most) New Zealand plant taxonomists. The following words I read as a student still resonate strongly with me:

[taxonomists should] “base new names on character states or distinctive habitats that assist in distinguishing a new taxon from its near relatives” (Webb & Edgar 1999).

Utility over sycophancy, perhaps?

That said, sometimes it is hard to come up with a new, unique name, particularly in groups of organisms that contain a lot of undescribed species. Te Papa’s snail expert, Bruce Marshall, has 5 genera and more than 20 species named after him.

What if we were to extend the taxonomic honouring of celebrity to New Zealand – Dobbynii or Finnii, or Irenei or Danii anyone?

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Plants | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

New Caledonia fern collecting

25 October 2012 – 2.46pm

I’m just back from three weeks collecting ferns in New Caledonia.

For a place so close to New Zealand (shorter flight time than to Australia), I knew very little about New Caledonia. I expect that is true for many New Zealanders, and it presumably reflects our very different cultures, not least being the language difference (French predominates in New Caledonia, and English* in New Zealand).

New Caledonia is not an independent country but a special collectivity of France. Nouméa, its largest city, is like a piece of France transplanted to the tropical Pacific. The original Melanesian character is perhaps most strongly retained in the (north-)east.

Wikipedia page on New Caledonia.

Wikipedia page on the indigenous Kanak people.

Some of Te Papa’s existing collections from New Caledonia.

We stayed in villages during some of our trip. Here at Bas Coulna, before we left to climb Mount Panié, we had a traditional-type hut. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Funded principally by a grant from the USA’s National Science Foundation, our collecting expedition was led by Matt von Konrat (Field Museum), Blanka Shaw (Duke University), and Louis Thouvenot, who was our guide and translator (none of the others in the expedition had been to New Caledonia before or spoke French, although Juan’s Spanish was useful on many occasions). The main goal was to collect Frullania liverworts, but we variously collected mosses, liverworts, and lichens – these are all small plants that are often neglected. I was invited along to collect ferns.

Interview with Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat programme about the expedition.

Blog post on similar expedition to Fiji in 2011.

The black stems, each only about 1 mm wide, of a Frullania liverwort creeping over a white lichen on the trunk of a mangrove tree. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

New Caledonia is home to about 270 ferns and lycophytes. That’s more than New Zealand, despite a land area less than 10%. About 35% of New Caledonia’s ferns and lycophytes are endemic (i.e., only found there), which is very high for a tropical Pacific island. However, the last comprehensive account is from 1969, and it is clear that much revision is needed. A reflection of this is that there are (at least) two species of new tree fern needing scientific description. During the three week expedition, I made 232 collections, of at least 160 different species. These include new species, new records for New Caledonia, and rediscoveries (species not recorded for a long time).

Te Papa’s updated checklist of Fiji’s ferns, which I hope to replicate for New Caledonia.

The Endemia website includes photos of many of New Caledonia’s ferns, and is an excellent photographic resource about New Caledonia’s biodiversity

In coming days I’ll post about some of the plants I saw, particularly, of course, the ferns.

Trip leader Matt von Konrat collecting Frullania liverworts up a mangrove. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Collecting near Tinou. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

All available space in our lodgings was often given over to drying specimens. Louis’s bed is somewhere under these paper packets. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

On our way to Mount Panié. We were fortunate to have horses carry our packs for the first part of the trek. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Maurice, one of our guides for Mount Panié, using a wreath of the fern Paesia rugosula to complement the shade of his cap. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Albeit clearly exhausted, here’s proof that I did make it to the summit of Mount Panié, New Caledonia’s highest point at 1629 m above sea level. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The expedition couldn’t have been the success it was without the assistance of many, especially Louis Thouvenot, as well as the Nouméa herbarium, the government land managers, the Kanak land owners and guides, and our contacts at Dayu Biik, Conservation International, and Société Calédonienne d’Ornithologie.

* I can note that the so-called ‘English’ speech of the two (monolingual) New Zealanders was constantly belittled by the other members (all multilingual) of the expedition, none of whom spoke English as a first language. Matt and I weren’t sure what to make of this.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Bryophytes, Ferns, Field trips, Pacific, Plants | Also tagged , , , | Comments (10)

Curiosities, world-firsts, and monsters – fern spotting in Wellington

6 August 2012 – 12.23pm

On Saturday I joined the Wellington Botanical Society’s field trip to Wright Hill in Karori, Wellington. Wellington city would not be my first choice of locality for fern spotting, but we still found plenty to keep me interested.

The striking filmy fern Hymenophyllum flexuosum. The scientific name means wavy or undulating (flexuose) membranous (hymen) leaf (phyllum). The fronds of most filmy ferns are only one cell thick! Hymenophyllum flexuosum usually grows on rocks, but can be a low epiphyte on trees. Photo © Leon Perrie.

The filmy ferns Hymenophyllum flexuosum and Trichomanes endlicherianum are always pleasing finds. Although widespread, they are not common (but not so rare to be on the national Threatened or At Risk lists). We found them together on a shaded rock face. Rock outcrops are always worth a close inspection because they can be home to species not found in other nearby habitats.

Trichomanes endlicherianum. Note the tubular reproductive structures that characterise the genus. By contrast, the reproductive structures in Hymenophyllum are each enclosed by two distinct flaps. Trichomanes endlicherianum is almost always found on shaded, near-vertical rock faces. It occasionally grows on trees, particularly at the bases of nikau palms. The similar Trichomanes venosum commonly grows on the trunks of tree ferns, but is easily distinguished on account of having multiple veins in each segment of the frond. Photo © Leon Perrie.

The shield fern Polystichum silvaticum was also an interesting find. I spotted this less than half an hour after I had predicted we wouldn’t find it because I thought the environment was not wet or cold enough (and I had forgotten that I had previously collected it from nearby Makara about six years ago). Its presence says something about Karori’s climate.

The shield-less shield fern Polystichum silvaticum. Photo © Leon Perrie.

The reproductive structures of Polystichum silvaticum are naked, lacking the shield-like protective coverings that characterise its relatives. Photo © Leon Perrie.

But my day’s highlight was finding a hybrid between Polystichum neozelandicum and P. silvaticum, which is the first time this has ever been recorded. Some Polystichum hybrid combinations are quite common, particularly, P. neozelandicum × P. vestitum. However, P. neozelandicum and P. silvaticum rarely grow in close proximity, limiting the likelihood of their hybridisation.

First record of the hybrid between Polystichum neozelandicum and P. silvaticum. Photo © Leon Perrie.

We also spotted a monstrous form of hound’s tongue fern, Microsorum pustulatum. These are due to damage to the growing bud, such that it produces fronds that divide more than is typical. During the nineteenth-century ‘fern craze’, such abnormalities were highly prized (and financially-valued) by collectors. Hound’s tongue fern seems particularly predisposed to monstrosities: in the last year I have seen similar plants near Eastbourne and in the Waioeka Gorge, but only at low frequencies (c. 1%).

A so-called monstrous or crested frond of hound’s tongue fern, Microsorum pustulatum. The lobes of the fronds of hound’s tongue fern do not normally fork at their apices. Photo © Leon Perrie.

Learn more about hound’s tongue fern on the Common New Zealand Ferns webpages.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

West Coast Fern Fieldwork 2012, 5 – favourite photos

14 June 2012 – 2.36pm

These are some of my favourite fern photos from our fieldwork on the South Island’s West Coast.

Close up of the underside of a frond of carrier tangle fern, Gleichenia microphylla. Each of the yellow spheres is a spore-producing sporangia. This species has more or less flat and green frond undersides, and the sporangia often occur in groups (sori) of three. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Close up of the underside of a frond of alpine tangle fern, Gleichenia alpina. This species is densely covered in scales. After our fieldwork we are much the wiser about variation in tangle ferns, but no less confused. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Close-up of the hairy Hymenophyllum rufescens. I haven’t seen this fern very often. Its related to the fan-like filmy fern, Hymenophyllum flabellatum, which is common in the lowlands, but you have to go up and/or south to find Hymenophyllum rufescens. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Despite its alien-looks, this is the fertile, spore-producing frond of kiokio, Blechnum novae-zelandiae. Parts of ‘normal’-looking sterile fronds are in the background. Most Blechnum ferns produce markedly different-looking fertile and sterile fronds. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The distinctive ‘black-spot’ scales on the stipe (frond stalk) of kiokio (Blechnum novae-zelandiae). The similar swamp kiokio (Blechnum minus) is said to have uniformly tan scales, lacking black-spots. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The upperside of a fertile frond of the stumpy tree fern, Dicksonia lanata. The spherical spore-producing structures can be seen poking out from the underside of the frond where they are aggregated on the margins. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Other blog posts about our West Coast fern fieldwork cover:

What we were doing.

Where we went.

Sticherus (umbrella ferns).

New, problematic, and interesting species.

Animal miscellany.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)

West Coast Fern Fieldwork 2012, 4 – new, problematic, and interesting species

12 June 2012 – 10.19am

Along with the Gleichenia and Sticherus, we were targeting a possible new species of Hymenophyllum filmy fern. We also made collections of several ‘problem’ species and other interesting finds.

A possible new species of filmy fern, related to Hymenophyllum flexuosum and Hymenophyllum atrovirens. There are records of this scattered down the West Coast, but it was difficult to re-locate. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The comb ferns, Schizaea, are very odd looking ferns, but easily overlooked. This one is southern comb fern, Schizaea australis, from near Charleston. Schizaea fistulosa, is similar but taller/longer, and occurs in lower-altitude/more-northern areas. The two can be difficult to distinguish, especially in the northern South Island. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Some authorities treat the small plants at lower right as a distinct species, swamp kiokio (Blechnum minus). Others regard them as part of a variable kiokio (Blechnum novae-zelandiae), big plants of which are at left. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

We found the lycophyte Lycopodiella cernua at a site near Haast, further south than the Okarito limit noted in the literature. Interestingly, this species also occurs in the tropics! Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The cave spleenwort, Asplenium cimmeriorum, only occurs in limestone areas of the west coasts of both the North and South Islands. It is commonly found at cave entrances. We found a new sub-population in the Charleston Conservation Area. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Cave spleenwort’s distribution based on Te Papa’s collections.

Other blog posts about our West Coast fern fieldwork cover:

What we were doing.

Where we went.

Sticherus (umbrella ferns).

Favourite photos. 

Animal miscellany.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

West Coast Fern Fieldwork 2012, 2 – where we went

6 June 2012 – 3.39pm

During our fern fieldwork on the West Coast, we ranged from Stockton in the north to the Cascade Valley (south of Jackson Bay) in the south. We were mostly near the coast, with our most inland collecting site being near Reefton. These are some of the interesting places we visited.

Plover Stream Conservation Area near Stockton. At centre, in orange high-visibility clothing, are Solid Energy’s Michelly Carvalho and Te Papa’s Pat Brownsey. I haven’t done fieldwork in a hard-hat before! The ridge in the background is a mining area. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

  

Hills to the south of the Denniston plateau. Denniston is a hot spot for the ferns we were targeting. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Mike counting fronds (200+!) in a rock overhang at Denniston. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Pat at the cave entrance in the Charleston Conservation Area where we found the cave spleenwort, Asplenium cimmeriorum. Mike ventured about 30 m into this cave. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Wendy and Pat in pakihi wetland near Lake Kini, Bruce Bay. Wendy somehow kept her feet dry throughout the trip; I was frequently in water over my boots. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Tall forest of rimu and kahikatea enveloping State Highway 6, near Bruce Bay. South Westland has much similar scenery. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa. 

Forest reflected in the beautifully still waters of the Lake Ellery outlet to the Jackson River, south of Haast. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

The Cascade Valley, south of Haast, and close to the southern point on our trip. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Other blog posts about our West Coast fern fieldwork cover:

What we were doing.

Sticherus (umbrella ferns).

New, problematic, and interesting species.

Favourite photos. 

Animal miscellany.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , | Comments (10)

West Coast Fern Fieldwork 2012, 1 – what we were doing

5 June 2012 – 1.57pm

I’m just back from 10 days collecting ferns in the South Island’s West Coast.

From previous collections, we knew of several currently unrecognised species of fern that occur on the West Coast. We investigated these records, visiting the sites to collect more material for our studies and to assess the plants in the field, including gauging population sizes for conservation rankings. Most of the previous records were old and lacked detailed locality information. This meant they took a lot of re-finding, but we were successful in most cases.

Gleichenia ferns often grow entangled with one another and with other plants; hence their common name of tangle ferns. But our understanding of them is also in a tangle. Two or three species are currently recognised in New Zealand, but I think there are at least five. The picture is of a new species. It looks similar to the others from above, but very different when viewed from below. I hope to formally describe it in a year or so. Then I will be able to show you the differences. Our fieldwork significantly extended the known occurrences of this fern. Photo Leon Perrie. © Te Papa.

Some of these poorly known ferns are uncommon. While we found some to be more widespread than previously thought, others appear to be teetering on the cusp between the Department of Conservation’s rankings of ‘At Risk’ and ‘Threatened’.

We also collected specimens of several ‘problem’ fern species, whose boundaries are unclear. They need further study, including with genetic analyses, which our new collections will facilitate.

Altogether, we collected about 170 specimens. These will begin to appear on Te Papa’s Collections Online in the next few weeks. However, there are some that we won’t be able to confidently identify without a lot more work.

With me were: Patrick Brownsey, Te Papa Research Fellow; Wendy Hogg, RSNZ Primary Science Teacher Fellow; and Mike Gemmell, VUW postgraduate student.

Other blog posts about our West Coast fern fieldwork cover:

Where we went.

Sticherus (umbrella ferns).

New, problematic, and interesting species.

Favourite photos. 

Animal miscellany. 

Te Papa’s Collections Online.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Biodiversity, Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (5)

Common ferns

28 March 2012 – 10.52am

Would you like to learn to recognise some of New Zealand’s ferns?

“Fernland” was an early colloquial name for New Zealand, so it’s almost patriotic to be able to recognise a few of the country’s ferns!

I’ve put together notes and images for 13 common species, showing how to distinguish them and where you might find them.

Common New Zealand ferns, from Te Papa’s Collections Online website.

Hound's tongue fern, Microsorum pustulatum.

The featured ferns are:

African clubmoss (not actually a fern, but a similar kind of plant)

button fern

Cunningham’s maidenhair

drooping filmy fern

fork fern

hen & chickens fern

hound’s tongue

kiokio

prickly shield fern

silver fern

single crape fern

sweet fern

wheki

All are common and widespread in New Zealand.  Check out the pictures and see how many you already recognise.

Let me know, by email or by posting a comment, if you would like to know more about any of these species, or other ferns.

Also let me know if you are interested in similar resources for other groups of plants or animals, and I will pass the request on to Te Papa’s relevant curator to see what they can do.

Te Papa’s Collections Online website is a work in progress.  All of the images in the “Common New Zealand ferns” pages are actually high-resolution, but you’ll notice that you can’t ‘zoomify’ them.  Additionally, the image captions are not particularly helpful.  Hopefully we’ll be able to fix these limitations before too long.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Collections Online, Ferns | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

A new fern, Lastreopsis kermadecensis

21 March 2012 – 2.46pm

Te Papa Research Fellow Patrick Brownsey and I have just described a new species of fern, Lastreopsis kermadecensis.  It only occurs on Raoul Island, which is the largest island in the Kermadec Islands group.  Hence, the second part of the new species name!

The newly described Lastreopsis kermadecensis, from Raoul Island in the Kermadecs. Photo by and courtesy of Peter de Lange.

The Kermadec Islands are the most northern part of the New Zealand Botanical Region.  Raoul Island is about 980 km north-east of the North Island.  Much of the indigenous flora is similar to mainland New Zealand.  But there are a number of plants that occur on the Kermadec Islands and elsewhere in the tropical south Pacific but not in mainland New Zealand.  There are also about 25 vascular plant species that are only found on the Kermadec Islands, like this new fern.

Wikipedia’s entry on the Kermadec Islands.

Some of the specimens from the Kermadec Islands amongst Te Papa’s collections.

While the official description of Lastreopsis kermadecensis is only recent, it has actually been suspected for nearly 50 years that the Lastreopsis on Raoul Island was a distinct species.  But it wasn’t until now that someone (us) did the work to test whether this was indeed the case.  This involved comparing specimens from Raoul Island, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere in the Pacific.  The work was completely collections-based; neither Pat nor I have been to the Kermadec Islands! Instead, we used specimens from the collections of Te Papa, Auckland Museum, Landcare Research, the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, the Queensland Herbarium, and Hawaii’s Bishop Museum. 

Abstract of the paper describing Lastreopsis kermadecensis.

Lastreopsis kermadecensis looks similar to New Zealand’s smooth shield fern, Lastreopsis glabella.  Lastreopsis glabella is a common forest fern.  You will have undoubtedly seen it if you’ve spent any time in New Zealand’s forests, even if you didn’t recognise it.  One of the differences between Lastreopsis kermadecensis and Lastreopsis glabella is that the latter has an abundance of small, orange glands on the undersides of its fronds.  Lastreopsis kermadecensis is actually most similar to Lastreopsis smithiana from eastern Australia, but there are several differences which we felt were sufficient to treat them as distinct species.

Pictures of New Zealand Lastreopsis from Te Papa’s Collections Online.

The formal description of Lastreopsis kermadecensis means we now recognise 196 ferns and lycophytes indigenous to New Zealand.  We are aware of several additional undescribed or unrecognised species, so a few more years of work will see the list top 200.

Te Papa’s list of New Zealand ferns and lycophytes.

Incidentally, Lastreopsis kermadecensis is one of the first New Zealand plants to be described under the changed rules that allow electronic publication of new scientific names.

Abstract of the article setting out the changes that allow electronic publication of new scientific names for plants, algae, and fungi.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Ferns, Plants | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Plant Hunt at Hokio, Levin

23 February 2012 – 8.39am

Te Papa Research Fellow Patrick Brownsey was recently contacted about a population near Levin of the very rare Ophioglossum petiolatum.

Ophioglossum are odd looking ferns, as befits a common name of “adder’s tongue ferns”.  We don’t have a picture of O. petiolatum (stalked adder’s tongue fern), but the related O. coriaceum is similar; O. petiolatum has a rounder leaf and a longer fertile spike than shown in the drawing below.

Ophioglossum coriaceum. Adams, Nancy. Purchased 2006. © Te Papa.

Ophioglossum petiolatum has a Nationally Critical conservation status in New Zealand.  More details and photos from the Plant Conservation Network.

Pat saw the Hokio population about 30 years ago, and wrote an article about it.  A local landowner wanted to know if the population still persisted.  Primary Science Teacher Fellow Wendy Hogg and I joined Pat for the hunt, but we were unsuccessful.  The area is much changed, and it seems unlikely (but not impossible) that O. petiolatum survives near Levin.  1985 article about Ophioglossum petiolatum at Hokio (2.3 MB pdf).

However, we did find the unusual, floating liverwort Ricciocarpos natans.  Although only a centimetre or two across, it is very distinctive.  It has a Nationally Endangered conservation status, but it is probably under-collected, and may be more common than appreciated.  Please look out for it amongst the “duckweed” on your local ponds!

The floating liverwort Ricciocarpos natans. Here it is ‘beach-cast’ in mud, along with Azolla rubra (a floating fern; the red plant in the lower-right corner) and Lemna duckweed (the small green ovals). Photo Leon Perrie, © Te Papa.

By Leon Perrie | Posted in Bryophytes, Ferns, Field trips, Plants | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
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