The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Marsilea mutica

Common Name(s)

nardoo

Authority

Marsilea mutica Mett.

Family

Marsileaceae

Brief Description

A perennial fern with slender, rooted branching rhizomes and erect leaves (sterile fronds) along their length. The mature leaf resemble a four leaf clover and consists of four oblanceolate to egg/wedge shaped, glabrous to hairy leaflets at the apex of a slender stalk; leaflets are held more or less horizontially, or they may fold up on one another, each with numerous, fine, close-set longitudinal veins. The young developing leaves near the rhizome are filiform with coiled tips (fern like). Sporocarps are mostly produced by plants growing on drying mud, and rarely on those in the water.

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Ferns

Distribution

Known from farm ponds at Hunua (South Auckland) and Paraparaumu (Wellington) and ornamental ponds elsewhere in the North Island.

Habitat

Plants are either aquatic or on mud, mostly in areas subject to at least temporary inundation. When the plants are growing in the water they have floating leaflets.

Features

Characterised by floating, clover like-fronds with four leaflets, can also be emergent from shallow water. The rhizome is glabrous, although there are a few hairs at the nodes that bear roots. The leaves are solitary and occur at intervals along the rhizome. The leaf stalks are 5 to 25 cm long in terrestrial forms, but may be longer in aquatic forms, up to 90 cm. The leaflets are mostly green, but also yellowish in the centre and have a brown demarcation line at the leaflet margin. The leaflets, four together, are smaller in terrestrial forms (1 to 5cm) and ca. 4 to 8 cm in diameter in aquatic forms. Sporocarps occur most frequently in 2 to 4 on a branched pedicel, which arises from the base of the leaf-stalk or on short branches that are attached to the leaf stalk a few millimetres from its base.

Similar Taxa

none

Flowering

N/A

Flower Colours

No Flowers

Fruiting

N/A

Year Naturalised

1988

Origin

Native to Australia and New Caledonia

Reason for Introduction

Ornamental pond plant

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Vegetative fragments and by spores.

This page last updated on 30 Jul 2014