Asplenium surrogatum
A medium-sized, glossy dark green spleenwort endemic to Lord Howe Island, with finely divided (pinnate-bipinnatifid) fronds up to about 60 cm long. It grows mainly in the cool, cloud-soaked mossy forest on the summits of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, on the ground, on basalt and on tree-fern trunks. In cultivation it wants mild temperatures, constant moisture and shade with good air movement.
Where it grows wild
Low, closed mossy cloud forest and stunted forest on the summit plateaus and upper slopes of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, with Dracophyllum, Dysoxylum, Zygogynum and the palms Hedyscepe and Lepidorrhachis. It grows terrestrially in clay loam over basalt, on wet basalt rock and boulders, and as an epiphyte on tree-fern stems. A few records come from lowland rainforest and creek banks.
Mostly 700–875 m on the southern mountains (Mount Gower summit 875 m); occasionally recorded low down, around 80–250 m. Our measured data file had no usable wild records.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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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-SA 4.0 licence, unmodified.