Wagner's Spleenwort (Asplenium X heteroresiliens)

This picture shows the fern in situ. Photo Credit: North Carolina Natural Heritage Program

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Aspleniaceae
State: AL, FL, GA, NC, SC
Nature Serve ID: 149453
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Categories of Interest: Ferns
Date Inducted in National Collection: 03/06/1993

Description:

Asplenium heteroresliens is an evergreen perennial herb member of the Asplenium trichomanes group, with ovate pinnae, and the pinnae in the lower third of the frond somewhat descending and tending to form a low auricle on the posterior side of the base. (Jones-Roe 1982). Carolina spleenwort grows in small depressions on vertical or high angle faces of marl outcrops and soft limestone rock in Coastal Plain habitats from North Carolina to Florida (Jones-Roe 1982; Dunbar 1989). It can produce viable spores asexually (apogamy). The opposite leaflets, which grow on a shiny black rachis, are sharply toothed and leathery with lobes appearing on the upper margin. Carolina spleenwort is thought to be a hybrid between Bicolored Spleenwort (A. heterochroum) and Blackstem Spleenwort (A. reiliens) (Dunbar 1989). It is offered some level of state protection in all states where it is found.

Where is Wagner's Spleenwort (Asplenium X heteroresiliens) located in the wild?

Habitat:

Small depressions on vertical or high angle faces of marl (a mixture of clay, sand, and a calcareous substrate that is soft and crumbly) outcrops in the Coastal Plain (Jones-Roe 1982).

Distribution:

Coastal Plain in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida (Jones-Roe 1982).

States & Provinces:

Wagner's Spleenwort can be found in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina

Which CPC Partners conserve Wagner's Spleenwort (Asplenium X heteroresiliens)?

North Carolina Botanical Garden

Not Sponsored

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

There are few recent occurrence records, the plants are not abundant, and occurrences are spotty within the range. Taxonomists debate whether this apogamous pentaploid should be treated as a species or as a hybrid. Rare in northern Florida; Florida Natural Areas Inventory currently contains 4 occurrences in its database. It occurs also in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Over-collection could deplete the population. When proposed as candidate '2' by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1993, it was listed as a species, not a hybrid.

01/01/2010

Habitat loss and conversion Loss of canopy Poaching Invasive exotic species (Jones-Roe 1982)

01/01/2010

53 individual crowns were counted at Walker's Bluff, Bladen Co., NC. 1,000 individual crowns were counted at Island Creek, Jones Co., NC. There are ten confirmed populations in NC and less than 20 nationally recorded from three counties in Georgia (Jones-Roe 1982).

01/01/2010

No current research.

01/01/2010

All but two populations occur on private land (Jones-Roe pers. comm. 2001).

01/01/2010

Current monitoring of all populations. Basic ecological and reproductive biology research.

01/01/2010

Spore collection from all populations not represented in collection.