Back to homepage
Questions? AskAuckland
  

Please select root levels for the menu

NZ Plants

Blechnum fraseri

Hard fern family: Blechnaceae

  • Plant

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Sterile frond (left) and fertile frond (right)

    I MacDonald

    View picture

  • Sterile frond (left) and fertile frond (right)

    I MacDonald

    View picture

  • Stalk (stipe) of young frond with large and small scales

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Stipe of young frond, small scales

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Stipe of mature frond

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Sterile frond upper surface, midrib (rachis) and leaflets

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Rachis with jagged wings

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Sterile frond, upper surface of leaflelts

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Sterile frond, lower surface of leaflets

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Fertile frond, upper surface of leaflets

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Fertile frond, lower surface of leaflets, indusia covering sporangia

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Older frond, indusia shrivelling to expose sporangia

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Maturing, unopened sporangia

    L Jensen

    View picture

  • Mature, open sporangia

    L Jensen

    View picture

Blechnum fraseri forms dense colonies of plants linked by a creeping rhizome with distinctive slender and woody trunks up to 1 m resembling miniature tree ferns. The stem terminates in a crown of glossy and leathery fronds with triangular wings along their stalks and midribs. The fertile frond leaflets are only slightly reduced in width from those of the sterile fronds.
Found in lowland forest from the North Island to the middle of the South Island.
 

Vegetative characteristics

Fertile frond and sporangia

Plant form: an erect stem up to 1 m bearing a crown of horizontal  fronds up to 400 mm long

Frond appearance: similar to sterile frond but with a longer stalk (stipe) and narrower leaflets

Frond stalk, midrib: scales present at base of stalk; upper stalk and midrib with jagged outgrowths (wings)

Sporangium location: on lower frond surface

Frond shape: ovate-elliptic

Sporangium position: leaflet margin

Frond blade: bipinnate (divided 2x into leaflets or pinnae)

Sporangium distribution: in groups (sori)

Frond surface:

Sorus shape: in a continuous line either side of midrib

Leaflets: narrowly elliptic, bluntly pointed; attached along base of leaflet (adnate)

Sorus covering: linear covering (indusium) opening toward midrib

Share Print Email