Mother spleenwort, Asplenium bulbiferum, is a fern species native to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It is also called hen and chicken fern and, in the Māori language

Maori language

Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...

, pikopiko and mouku. Its fronds are eaten as a vegetable

Vegetable

The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....

.

Hen and chicken ferns grow small bulbils on top of their fronds. Once grown to about 5 cm (2 in), these offsprings fall off and, provided the soil they land in is kept moist, develop a root system and grow into new ferns. This additional means of reproduction is easier to use for propagation than spores. The related species Asplenium viviparum has a similar mode of reproduction.

The hen and chicken fern commonly grows in most bush areas in New Zealand and is also commercially grown and sold. It thrives in many situations from shade to partial sunlight, and is also suitable and popular as an indoor plant, including areas with low light.