Asplenium majoricum is a tiny 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...

 endemic to Mallorca

Mallorca

Majorca or Mallorca is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the Balearic Islands.The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Cabrera Archipelago is administratively grouped with Majorca...

 (Serra de Tramuntana

Serra de Tramuntana

The Serra de Tramuntana is a mountain range running southwest-northeast which forms the northern backbone of the Spanish island of Majorca. It is also the name given to the comarca of the same area...

) and some locations in Valencia and south of Catalonia. It belongs to 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. This allotetraploid hybrid (2n = 144 chromosomes) is the result of crossbreeding between the diploid ferns Asplenium fontanum subsp. fontanum (2n = 72 chromosomes) and Asplenium petrarchae

Asplenium petrarchae

Asplenium petrarchae is a tiny fern of the family Aspleniaceae. Its fronds are densely pubescent-glandular with length between 5 and 14 cm. Petiole less than the sheet of dark brown and shiny. Sores along the central line of the pinnae, subelliptical and confluent when mature...

subsp. bivalens (2n = 72 chromosomes), followed by the spontaneous doubling of the number of chromosomes. Its fronds measure between 6 and 12 cm (5 in). The sori are more longer than wide with a side indusie and are located near the central line of the pinnae. Sporulation from March to November.

Habitat

This small fern lives among the stones of the walls of the terraces and in the crevices of limestone rocks oriented North and Northwest. It likes light but not direct sun. In the dry summer months enters in estivation (summer sleep), dehydrating the fronds until apparently dead. With the first rains of autumn, the fronds will rehydrate in less than 24 hours and aquilinocarsin as if nothing had happened. A few days starting to sprout new fronds. Stops in the middle of winter to spring, restarting sprouting in the spring.

Hybrids

• Asplenium × reichsteinii: hybrid between Asplenium majoricum and its parent Asplenium fontanum subsp. fontanum.
• Asplenium × orellii: hybrid between Asplenium majoricum and Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens.
• Asplenium × sollerense: hybrid between Asplenium majoricum and Asplenium petrarchae subsp. petrarchae.
• Asplenium barrancense: hybrid between Asplenium majoricum and Asplenium ceterach subsp. ceterach.