Pacific ferns: taxonomy and relationships

Te Papa researchers: Leon Perrie, Patrick Brownsey and Lara Shepherd

Over half of Aotearoa’s ferns and lycophytes are also indigenous elsewhere in the south-west Pacific region. Improving the understanding of the floras adjacent to New Zealand therefore provides better context for our work on its own ferns and lycophytes. Our investigations involve the delimitation, naming, distributions, and relationships of species.

With its shared Zealandian heritage, New Caledonia is a special focus, but we’ve also published on Australian, Solomon Islands, Fijian, and Tongan ferns.

A dark pink fern frond with green bush in the background

Blechnum milnei, Fiji. Photo by Leon Perrie. Te Papa

A small, pale green frond growing up from the earth

Pneumatopteris glandulifera, Solomon Islands. Photo by Leon Perrie. Te Papa

Looking up from the bush at a talk palm tree with blue sky and clouds in the distance

Cyathea intermedia, New Caledonia. Photo by Leon Perrie. Te Papa

Main collaborators: Rémy Amice (Nouméa), Daniel Ohlsen (Melbourne), Cheng-Wei Chen (Taipei).

Representative publications:

Shepherd LD, Murdock AG, Amice R, Perrie LR. 2023. A synopsis of Ptisana ferns (Marattiaceae) in New Caledonia based on sequence data and morphology with the recognition of a new vulnerable species P. soluta. Adansonia 45: 41-59.

Perrie LR, Amice R, Shepherd LD, Laudereau C, Bruy D, Tuiwawa M, Ohlsen DJ, Brownsey PJ. 2023. New records of fern species from New Caledonia in the genera Davallia, Dicranopteris, Pteris, and Trichomanes. New Zealand Journal of Botany: in press.