New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

---

A new location for the Poor Knights spleenwort (Asplenium pauperequitum, Aspleniaceae) on The Forty Fours, Chatham Islands, New Zealand

E. K. Cameron

Auckland War Memorial Museum
Private Bag 92018
Auckland, New Zealand

P. J. de Lange*

Terrestrial Conservation Unit
Department of Conservation
Private Bag 68908
Newton
Auckland, New Zealand

L. R. Perrie
P. J. Brownsey

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
PO Box 467
Wellington, New Zealand

H. J. Campbell

Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited
Gracefield Research Centre
PO Box 30368
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

G. A. Taylor

Research, Development and Information
Department of Conservation
PO Box 10420
Wellington, New Zealand

D. R. Given†

Botanical Services Curator
Christchurch City Council
PO Box 237
Christchurch, New Zealand

R. M. Bellingham

Bethells Road
Te Henga
Auckland, New Zealand

*Author for correspondence. pdelange@doc.govt.nz

†Deceased 27 November 2005

Abstract  Documentation is made of the discovery of the Poor Knights spleenwort, (Asplenium pauperequitum) in a sample of vascular plant specimens collected from The Forty Fours. These islands are the easternmost outlier of the Chatham Islands archipelago. Hitherto this fern had been believed endemic to the Poor Knights Islands and Mokohinau Islands of the Hauraki Gulf, off eastern Northland, North Island, New Zealand. Frond and spore morphology together with chloroplast DNA sequences were used to confirm its identity. Whether this fern disjunction of some 1245 km is the result of vicariance or long-distance dispersal is discussed and long-distance dispersal of fern spores or whole sporangia is considered most likely.

Keywords  Aspleniaceae; Asplenium pauperequitum; biogeography; Poor Knights Islands; Chatham Islands; The Forty Fours; trnL-trnF and rbcL chloroplast DNA sequences; vicariance; long distance dispersal; New Zealand flora

B05044; Received 5 October 2005; accepted 15 February 2006; Online publication date 4 May 2006
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2006, Vol. 44: 199–209
0028–825X/06/4402–0199 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2006

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (3502K) | screen-quality (615K)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page