A new location for the poor knights spleenwort (Asplenium pauperequitum, Aspleniaceae) on The forty fours, chatham Islands, New Zealand

Abstract

Documentation is made of the discovery of the Poor Knights spleenwort, (Asplenium pauperequitum) in a sample of vascular plant specimens collected from The Forty Fours. These islands are the easternmost outlier of the Chatham Islands archipelago. Hitherto this fern had been believed endemic to the Poor Knights Islands and Mokohinau Islands of the Hauraki Gulf, off eastern Northland, North Island, New Zealand. Frond and spore morphology together with chloroplast DNA sequences were used to confirm its identity. Whether this fern disjunction of some 1245 km is the result of vicariance or longdistance dispersal is discussed and long-distance dispersal of fern spores or whole sporangia is considered most likely. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.