Asplenium azoricum is a fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

 from hybrid origin of the Aspleniaceae

Aspleniaceae

The Aspleniaceae is a family of ferns, included in the order Polypodiales or in some classifications as the only family in the order Aspleniales....

 family, descendent of the Macaronesia

Macaronesia

Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde...

n ancestral fern Asplenium anceps

Asplenium anceps

Asplenium anceps is a diploid fern of Aspleniaceae family and one of the ancestors of the ferns that form the trichomanes complex. It lives exclusively in the three northernmost islands of the Macaronesian region, that is, is an endemic macaronesian fern...

. It lives exclusively in the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

, that is a strict endemic Azorean fern. Its fronds are coriaceous like plastic and its rachis

Rachis

Rachis is a biological term for a main axis or "shaft".-In zoology:In vertebrates a rachis can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the rachis usually form the supporting axis of the body and is then called the spine or vertebral column...

 is very thick, dark garnet color and brilliance. A typical feature of this fern, which it shares with all the descendants of A. anceps, is the existence of a small atrium at the base of the medium and lower pinnae geared towards the apex of the frond with one or two sori

Sorus

A sorus is a cluster of sporangia .In fungi and lichens, the sorus is surrounded by an external layer. In some red algae it may take the form of a depression into the thallus....

 in its underside.

Habitat

It lives among the stones of the walls of the terraces and in the crevices of volcanic rocks oriented to the north and northwest. Depending of the degree of exposure to the sun, its phenotype changes a lot, becoming more coriaceous the more sunlight it receives.

Hybrids

• Asplenium azomanes (A. trichomanes ssp. coriaceifolium): allotetraploid
  Polyploidy
  Polyploid is a term used to describe cells and organisms containing more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most eukaryotic species are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes — one set inherited from each parent. However polyploidy is found in some organisms and is especially common...
  
   hybrid between A. azoricum and A. trichomanes
  Asplenium trichomanes
  Asplenium trichomanes is a small fern in the spleenwort genus Asplenium. It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats. It is a variable fern with several subspecies.-Description:It grows in tufts from a short rhizome...
  
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