Rhizomes short, thick; scales without teeth, long pointed. Fronds tufted, arching, thick, dark green, to 1.5 m long but generally much less. Blade ovate in outline, divided 2-3 times, segments with veins extending to each tooth, the segments producing plantlets on the upper surface of ribs towards their tips. Sori just inside the margin; indusium on midvein of lobe pointing to upper margin, difficult to see in older plants.
A variable species with a number of subspecies and a known capacity to hybridise.
Asplenium bulbiferum × A. oblongifolium 'Maori Princess' was introduced to the trade by Chris Goudey c. 1988. It is a hybrid that occurs in the wild in New Zealand, a plant being given to Chris Goudey by Mrs Shallcras of Nelson, New Zealand whose father was a Maori chief. This was used as a stock plant for this cultivar.
Asplenium bulbiferum × A. surrogatum P. S. Green 'Island Beauty' is a hybrid introduced to the nursery trade by Chris Goudey c. 1991. The Asplenium bulbiferum of the trade is generally sterile and he used fertile New Zealand plants of this species to cross with A. surrogatum (formerly A. pteridoides) from Lord Howe Island.
Numerous hybrid crosses in Asplenium have been produced by Chris Goudey but the two above have proved the most hardy and easily propagated.
Will tolerate cool conditions.
Australia, NZ.
Numerous plantlets on the fronds.
Source: (1995). Aspleniaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
