Asplenium listeri
The Christmas Island spleenwort is a small, tufted, hard-fronded fern that grows in crevices and soil pockets on exposed limestone cliffs and outcrops. On Christmas Island it is critically endangered, with fewer than 300 plants on the inland cliffs where moisture from the southeasterly trade winds collects. It is a warm, humid tropical lithophyte for a bright, well-ventilated setting with an alkaline, fast-draining mineral mix.
Where it grows wild
Crevices and shallow soil-filled fissures on limestone cliffs and rocky outcrops, often on the inland cliffs rising above the terrace rainforest, in semi-open forest or partly exposed positions. Records describe accumulated soil on vertical limestone faces, some sheltered by figs, and exposed crevices with little other vegetation. In Vanuatu it has been recorded on moist rocks beside a river and on coral limestone.
Recorded elevations are 0–272 m, median 265 m, mostly from Margaret Knoll and nearby cliffs on Christmas Island at 200–270 m.
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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.