Asplenium subglandulosum
(Hook. & Grev.) Salvo, Prada & T.E.DiazRhizome erect, covered with ovate or lanceolate dark brown, latticed scales with tapering tips. Fronds tufted, erect, 2.5–17 cm long. Stipe usually shorter than lamina, slender, pale brown at base, green above; scales similar to those on rhizome; hairs numerous, colourless to rust-coloured, often gland-tipped; old stipe bases persistent. Lamina 1- or 2-pinnate, narrowly elliptic to oblong, soft, densely covered in hairs; hairs often gland-tipped; rachises slender, winged toward apex. Pinnae in 3–10 pairs, shortly stalked, often decurrent on rachis, flabellate to ovate or broadly ovate, 3–23 mm long; veins obscure. Sori in radiating lines along veins, linear-oblong, without indusium; mature sporangia brown to black, sometimes confluent and covering most of the under-surface of pinna.
Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, MonT, HFE, VAlp. All States. New Zealand. Widespread and growing among rocks and in rock-crevices, often in dry or exposed areas (e.g. Grampians, Werribee River Gorge, Warby Range, Mt Pilot, gorges of several rivers in Gippsland).
This species was previously included in the small Asplenium segregate genus Pleurosorus Fée. This genus was defined by a combination of its profusely hairy fronds and the absence of an indusium. Phylogenetic analyses of chloroplast DNA data have shown that Pleurosorus is most closely related to the European Asplenium ruta-muraria L. and that this group is derived from other Asplenium lineages (Schneider et al. 2004; Ohlsen et al. 2014; Xu et al. 2020). Retaining Pleurosorus would require recognising several other groups as genera if genera are to represent groups that contain all descendants of a common ancestor (i.e. are monophyletic). However, these genera would be hard to distinguish from each other morphologically and so Pleurosorus is now included within Asplenium (Schneider et al. 2004; PPG I 2016; Brownsey & Perrie 2018).
A second species in Pleurosorus, P. rutifolius (R.Br.) Fée, was previously recognised in Australia. This species was distinguished from P. subglandulosum (Hook. & Grev.) Tindale primarily based on whether the fronds had glandular hairs or not (Brownsey 1998). However, the proportion of glandular hairs seems to vary more or less continuously among these plants in Australia from plants with most hairs being glandular, to plants with a few being questionably glandular or all non-glandular. Consequently, both these species are now included within A. subglandulosum. This species epiphet is used because of the pre-existing African A. rutifolium (P.J.Bergius) Kunze.
SpinningBrownsey, P.J. (1998). Aspleniaceae. In: McCarthy, P.M., Flora of Australia 48: Ferns, Gymnosperms and Allied Groups, pp. –. CSIRO.
Brownsey, P.J.; Perrie, L.R. (2018). Aspleniaceae. In: Breitwieser, I.; Wilton, A.D., Flora of New Zealand-Ferns and Lycophytes. Fascicle 18., pp. –. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.
Ohlsen, D.J. (2020). Asplenium. In: Kodela, P.G., Flora of Australia, pp. –. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.
Ohlsen, D.J., Perrie, L.R., Shepherd, L.D., Brownsey, P,J.; Bayly, M. (2014). Phylogeny of the fern family Aspleniaceae in Australasia and the south-west Pacific. Australian Systematic Botany 27 27: 355–371.
PPG 1 (2016). A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns.. *Journal of Systematics and Evolution * 54: 563–603.
Schneider, H.; Russell, S.J.; Cox, C.J.; Bakker, F.; Henderson, S.; Rumsey, F.; Barrett, J.; Gibby, M.; Vogel, J.C. (2004). Chloroplast phylogeny of Asplenioid ferns based on rbcL and trnL-F spacer sequences (Polypodiidae, Aspleniaceae) and its implications for biogeography. Systematic Botany 29: 260–274.
Xu, K-W.; Zhang, L.; Rothfels, C.J.; Smith, A.R.; Viane, R.; Lorence, D.; Wood, K.R.; Chen, C-W.; Knapp, R.; Zhou, L.; Lu, N.T.; Zhou, X-M.; Wei, H-J; . Fan, Q.; Chen, S-F.; Cicuzza, D.; Gao, X-F.; Liao, W-B.; Zhang, L-B. L- (2020). A global plastid phylogeny of the fern genus Asplenium (Aspleniaceae). *Cladistics * 36: 22–71.
