Cranfillia geniculata, synonym Blechnum geniculatum, is a species of fern in the family Blechnaceae. The specific epithet geniculata refers to the geniculate (sharply bent) base of the sterile fronds.
Taxonomy
The species was originally described as Blechnum geniculatum by T.C. Chambers and P.A. Farrant in 1993 (published in Telopea 5(2): 329). It was later transferred to the genus Cranfillia by Gasper and V.A.O. Dittrich in 2016 (published in Phytotaxa 275(3): 208). The genus Cranfillia was established in 2016 as part of a reclassification of the Blechnaceae family, honoring Raymond Cranfill, an early researcher of Blechnaceae.
Description
The plant is a terrestrial or lithophytic (growing on rocks) fern. It has a creeping rhizome with dense apical scales. Its fronds are 10–25 cm long and 7–15 cm wide.
Distribution and habitat
The fern is endemic to Australia's subtropical Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. It grows on moist, shaded banks in cloud forest on the summits of Mounts Gower and Lidgbird, where it is considered rare.
Classification notes
Taxonomic opinion on the genus Cranfillia is divided. Some sources (following Gasper et al., 2016, and PPG I, 2016) accept Cranfillia as a distinct genus within subfamily Blechnoideae. Other sources sink it into a broadly defined Blechnum, equivalent to the whole of the PPG I subfamily.
