Asplenium cimmeriorum
The cave spleenwort is a small New Zealand fern that grows on heavily shaded limestone, especially at cave entrances and under rock archways, in high-rainfall country from Waitomo in the North Island to Punakaiki in the South Island. It has thin, dark green or blue-green fronds 3.5–22 cm long. It needs deep shade, cool, constantly humid air and a limy substrate, and it grows slowly.
Where it grows wild
It grows on heavily shaded calcareous rock in high-rainfall areas, especially cave entrances and archways, often beneath other ferns such as Austroblechnum lanceolatum. It also grows on cave walls and ceilings and on decaying wood in forest. iNaturalist notes describe it on damp, shaded limestone cliffs and walls.
No elevations are recorded. The karst areas where it grows, at Waitomo and on the West Coast between Karamea and Punakaiki, are mostly lowland to low hill country.
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 4.0 licence, unmodified.