Necklace Fern - native (Asplenium flabellifolium)

Family: Aspleniaceae.

Moderately common. Usually in sheltered places e.g. rock crevices at the base of rocky outcrops.

Native of Australia, NZ and South Africa.

Identification:

• it is scrambling plant
• the fronds are delicate and fan-shaped
• the veins in the fronds fork repeatedly
• the fronds are pale green (compared to dark green of Blanket Fern)
• the leaves and stalks are hairless.

The pale green hairless fronds and hairless stalks distinguish this fern from Blanket Fern, which has dark green fronds and hairy fronds and stalks.

Asplenium = not spleen, from the supposed ability to cure spleen complaints; flabellifolium = fan-shaped leaves.

---