Doodia aspera
Common name
prickly rasp fern
Synonyms
Woodwardia aspera (R.Br.) Fée; Blechnum neohollandicum Christenh.
Family
Blechnaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Ferns
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
DOOASP
Chromosome number
2n = 64
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – an interim threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017 . 2018. Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley. Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Non-resident Native – Vagrant | Qualifiers: EW, SO
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Non-resident Native – Vagrant | Qualifiers: EW, SO
2009 | Non-resident Native – Vagrant | Qualifiers: EW, SO
2004 | Non-resident Native – Vagrant
Distribution
Indigenous. Probably now extinct in New Zealand, said to have occurred at one site near Waiomio, Kawakawa, in Northland. Other records from Takapaukura / Tom Bowling Bay are based on hybrids.
Habitat
The species has been recorded only from Northland where it once grew in coastal scrub and inland under rawirinui (Kunzea robusta) forest.
Detailed description
Terrestrial fern with New Zealand examples forming dense carpets due to long creeping rhizomes which form thick and rather extensive networks above and below soil. Rhizomes up to 10 mm diameter, covered in persistent, dark black stipe remnants, widely spreading up to or exceeding 1 m in length; more or less ascending at apices; with or without fronds, sometimes with fronds more or less evenly spaced along stolon. Stipes 100–300 mm long; clad in black to blackish-brown scales, sometimes also finely hairy. Fronds not dimorphic, lamina narrowly-elliptic to elliptic, pinnate, 120–400 × 25–100 mm, at first pink or pinkish-green, maturing dark green, or in poor conditions yellow-green, scaly along rhacis, rather harshly textured. Pinnae in 15–38 pairs, fused (adnate) to rachis, except on occasion the lower pair which may be stalked. Terminal pinna 7–21 mm long (c. less than ⅛ of total frond length); longest pinnae 15–60 × 4-6 mm. Indusia and sorus reniform, sori 0.8-2 x 0.8–1.5 mm, discrete, in 1–2 rows on either side of pinna midvein.
Similar taxa
Best distinguished from Doodia australis by the stoloniferous habit, and pinnae which, with the infrequent exception of the basal pair, are adnate (fused) to the rachis. Doodia aspera is cold sensitive and even in Auckland will slow down growth and die back during winter, D. australis is not so cold sensitive and continues growth even when partially frosted.
Flowering
Not applicable—spore producing
Flower colours
No flowers
Fruiting
Not applicable—spore producing
Propagation technique
Easy from spores and rooted pieces. Once established it is rather fast growing,and makes an excellent ground cover under tall trees, or on exposed, hard clay soils. The species is cold sensitive—much nursery stock is of Australian origin, and specimens from Tomakanga Pa, Takapaukura / Tom Bowling Bay are now known to be hybrids with Doodia australis—they make a fine garden plant and being sterile cannot cross with other Doodia species.
Threats
The last reported wild population was said to have been destroyed when the habitat was planted over in pines. As a vagrant species Doodia aspera could potentially reappear elsewhere in New Zealand at any time. It should be looked for.
Etymology
doodia: Named for Samuel Doody, 17th century London apothecary and curator
aspera: From the Latin asper ‘rough’, meaning rough or covered with hard short rigid points
Where To Buy
Occasionally available from mainline and specialist native plant nurseries, though it is unclear if the plants available are of New Zealand or Australian origin
Taxonomic Notes
Two of the images provided here by the NZPCN are from plants that had been referred to Doodia aspera in the past (Parris 1973) but which are now known to be hybrids between that species and D. australis (de Lange et al. 2004). These hybrids are common in one area near Takapaukura / Tom Bowling Bay, Te Paki. They resemble Doodia aspera closely except that they have irregular meiosis, produce aborted spores, and have an intermediate chromosome number (2n = 96) (see comments by de Lange et al. 2004). As far as is known there are now no longer any genuine wild occurrences of D. aspera s.s. in New Zealand, although there are many garden plants said to have originated from a wild source in northern New Zealand. This is a claim which remains to be substantiated, as much Australian D. aspera was bought into New Zealand by fern growers in the late 1970s and early 1980s (P.J. de Lange unpubl. data).
Perrie et al. (2014) advocated for a broadened circumscription of Blechnaceae whereby a number of genera traditionally recognised as distinct from Blechnum were merged within it. However, this view has not met with universal acceptance (see Gasper et al. 2016) and does not seem to be followed worldwide (PPG 2016). From a New Zealand perspective the decision to merge Doodia in Blechnum, and rejection of Diploblechnum has not been universally accepted either e.g., Wilcox & Warden (2017), and as such it is considered appropriate to follow world opinion and accept the taxonomy of Gasper et al. (2016) and recommendations of the PPG (2016).
Attribution
Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (2 February 2005). Description adapted from Parris (1973, 1998) and Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (2000).
References and further reading
Brownsey PJ, Smith-Dodsworth JC. 2000. New Zealand Ferns and Allied Plants. David Bateman, Auckland, NZ. 168 p.
de Lange PJ, Murray BG, Datson PM. 2004. Contributions to a chromosome atlas of the New Zealand flora ‐ 38. Counts for 50 families. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(4): 873–904. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.2004.9512936.
Gasper AL, de Oliveira Dittrich VA, Smith AR, Salino A. 2016. A classification for Blechnaceae (Polypodiales: Polypodiopsida): New genera, resurrected names, and combinations. Phytotaxa 275: 191–227. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.275.3.1.
Parris BS. 1972. The genus Doodia (Blechnaceae: Filicales) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 10: 585–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/0028825X.1972.10430248.
Parris BS. 1998: Doodia. Flora of Australia 48, Ferns Gymnosperms and allied groups: 385–393. ABRS/CSIRO Victoria, Australia.
Perrie LR, Wilson RK, Shepherd LD, Ohlsen DJ, Batty EL, Brownsey PJ, Bayly MJ. 2014. Molecular phylogenetics and generic taxonomy of Blechnaceae ferns. Taxon 63(4): 745–758. https://doi.org/10.12705/634.13.
PPG 1: The Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group 2016. A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 563–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12229.
Wilcox M, Warden J. 2017. Botany of Hillsborough coast bush reserves, Manukau Harbour, Auckland. Auckland Botanical Society Journal 72: 32–46.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Doodia aspera Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/doodia-aspera/ (Date website was queried)