Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Pteridopsida
Order: Athyriales
Family: Blechnaceae
Genus: Blechnum
Species: B. penna-marina
Binomial name: Blechnum penna-marina
Synonyms: Polypodium penna-marina, Lomaria Antarctica, Struthiopteris distans, Lomaria pumila, Spicanta pumila, Stegania alpine, Lomaria distans, Lomaria linearis, Lomaria parvifolia, Blechnum hillii, Blechnum parvifolium, Lomaria alpine, Blechnum alpinum,
Common names: Alpine hard fern, Little hard fern, dwarf hard fern, alpine water fern
Blechnum penna-marina is a native alpine water fern that can grow in conditions down to -25°C. Its natural range in New Zealand is the North, South, Stewart, Chatham, Antipodes, Auckland, Campbell Islands and the Macquarie Island. Its habitat is coastal to alpine in open forest, subalpine scrub, grassland, alpine herbfield, and in moss field on the shaded sites of rock outcrops. It mostly montane to alpine in the northern part of the range, and is scarce north of the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato. It is present on Mt Egmont/Taranaki. It also grows in Australia, some Pacific islands, South America. It is evergreen and its fronds can grow to 20 cm and have a width of 2 cm. Frond height decreases with altitude to a few centimetres near the upper limit of its range.
For more information visit: http://hardyfernlibrary.com/ferns/listSpecies.cfm?Auto=104
The underside of a frond.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
