# Asplenium listeri

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***Asplenium listeri***, commonly known as the **Christmas Island spleenwort**, is a [species](/source/Species) of [fern](/source/Fern) in the family [Aspleniaceae](/source/Aspleniaceae). It is [endemic](/source/Endemism) to [Christmas Island](/source/Christmas_Island), an [Australian](/source/Australia) territory in the northeastern [Indian Ocean](/source/Indian_Ocean). Its [specific epithet](/source/Specific_name_(botany)) honours British zoologist and [plant collector](/source/Plant_collecting) [Joseph Jackson Lister](/source/Joseph_Jackson_Lister_(naturalist)), who visited the island on [HMS *Egeria*](/source/HMS_Egeria_(1873)) in 1887 and was the first to collect a specimen.[2]

## Description

The spleenwort is a small, terrestrial, [lithophytic](/source/Lithophyte) fern with shortly creeping rhizomes, and with fronds up to 90 mm (3.5 in) long held in a crown.[2]

## Distribution and habitat

Found only on Christmas Island, the fern is known from a very small number of sites, where it grows in crevices on the cliffs and among the rocks of exposed [limestone](/source/Limestone) outcrops. It is a rare component of the sparse vegetation community characteristic of the inland cliffs which rise above the [rainforest](/source/Rainforest) of the [terraces](/source/Marine_terrace), and it has not been recorded from the other vegetation zones of the island. It is likely that the distribution of the species is related to sites which are well placed to capture and retain moisture from the prevailing southeasterly [trade winds](/source/Trade_wind).[2]

## Taxonomy

The Christmas Island spleenwort is closely related to the sympatric *[Asplenium polyodon](/source/Asplenium_polyodon)* G. Forst., known as the Sickle Spleenwort or Mare's Tails Fern. It can be distinguished from the latter by the former species' harder and generally smaller fronds, which may be adaptations to its more exposed lithophytic habitat.[2]

## Status and conservation

It was listed as [Critically Endangered](/source/Critically_Endangered) on 23 July 2002 under Australia's [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999](/source/Environment_Protection_and_Biodiversity_Conservation_Act_1999), when it was known only from a single location. Since then further sites have been found, but the number of known individuals of the species is less than 300, its distribution is very restricted and it is vulnerable to [stochastic](/source/Stochastic) disturbance events, with two of the four new locations lying outside the [Christmas Island National Park](/source/Christmas_Island_National_Park).[2]

## References

### Notes

1. Christensen (1906).

1. Butz (2004).

### Sources

- Christensen, C. (1906). [*Index Filicum*](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3524195). Vol. Fascicles 1-12, 1753-1906. H. Hagerup. p. 118.
- Butz, Mark (2004). [*National recovery plan for the Christmas Island Spleenwort*Asplenium listeri'](http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/recovery/a-listeri/part-a.html)**. Canberra: Dept of the Environment and Heritage, Australia. ISBN 0-642-55049-2.**

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