Asplenium L.

Spleenworts

29 species native AUST.; all states and territories

Mostly terrestrial ferns but some species are huge RF epiphytes. Rhizome usually shortly creeping, clothed with thin, chestnut-coloured or grey or purplish, clathrate scales. Stipes with X-shaped vascular bundles in transverse section of the upper portion. Fronds simple or lobed to pinnately decompound, often viviparous by buds on the axes or pinnae, glabrous or clothed with small, clathrate scales. Veins free, forked, but sometimes with a few anastomoses near the margin or with an intramarginal vein present. Sori oblong to linear, borne on the basiscopic side of the veinlets. Indusium oblong to linear, elongated along the veins, usually with tapering ends, single in all the Australian species. Sporangia with an annulus including 20–28 thick-walled cells. Spores bilateral, smooth or spiny,