Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2007B00384:body:0:p2
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2007B00384
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 2799–5797

out actions required to protect and restore important populations of the species and its habitat, and to manage and reduce threatening processes; and
     * provide a planned framework for key interest groups and responsible government agencies to coordinate their work to conserve the species.

This plan is for the listed Critically Endangered plant species Asplenium listeri (Aspleniaceae) (Christmas Island Spleenwort) which is found only on Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), an external Territory.

PART A: SPECIES INFORMATION AND GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

A.1 Species
This recovery plan addresses the management requirements for conservation of Asplenium listeri (Christmas Island Spleenwort).  This is a fern endemic to Christmas Island, where it is known from a very small number of localities growing among rocks and on cliffs of exposed limestone outcrops.

Technical description:  Small, lithophytic fern with rhizome shortly creeping, stout, scaly; scales narrowly ovate about 3 to 6mm long, long-acuminate, latticed, dark brown, glossy; fronds in a crown.
Stipe slender, about 2.5 to 3.5cm long, slender, black, with some scales at the base.
Fronds short, erect, about 3.5 to 9cm long, pinnate, with about 8 to 18 pinnae which are gradually reduced towards the apex; pinnae ovate, about 8 to 18mm long, with several lobes divided to near mid-vein, unequal-sided, incised and toothed, cuneate at the base, more or less glabrous, coriaceous, with stalk 0.3mm long; lateral veins forked, free.  Sori linear along lateral veins; indusium linear (DuPuy 1993b).

Illustrations:  DuPuy (1993b) p.555; Fig. 97 A fertile plant x0.5; B fertile pinna x2 (ill. E. Catherine)
Photograph:  DuPuy (1993b) p.330  Fig.67

A.2 Taxonomy

Asplenium listeri C.Chr. Index Filicum 118 (1906)
Family Aspleniaceae: Polypodiatae: Plantae

The Asplenium genus is large, with more than 600 species distributed worldwide.
The genus is named (1753) from Greek a (not) and spleen (a spleen) referring to the former use of some species as a remedy for disorders of the spleen.  Dioscorides used the name asplenon for this type of fern.  The species is named for naturalist Joseph Jackson Lister, who first collected a specimen of the species in 1887 (DuPuy 1993b).

Other names in use: none known

Common name:  Christmas Island Spleenwort

Confusing species: The morphology of the closely related Asplenium polyodon G. Forst. (Sickle Spleenwort, Mare's Tails Fern) can be highly variable, displaying at times a marked similarity to Asplenium listeri in pinnae shape and sori.  The most distinguishing features are the harder and generally smaller fronds of A. listeri, which may be an adaptation to its exposed lithophytic habitat (Reddell pers. comm.).

A.3 Conservation Status

Current listing:

Listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) as Critically Endangered on 23 July 2002.

This listing decision was partly based on the species being known from