This hybrid between Asplenium adiantum-nigrum ( Black Spleenwort) and Asplenium obovatum (Lanceolate Spleenwort) was unknown to Science until as late as 1971 and is a sterile hybrid between these two very similar looking Spleenworts. This one was hidden deep in a bank of vegetation and it was quite surprising that it had survived. Quite a few hybrids have been found in Guernsey, all different and some needing microscopic examination to prove they are hybrids and not A. adiantum-nigrum.
Stace does not mark this as rare but it must be surely?
One of the questions we field botanists ask each other when confronted with a plant difficult to identify such as this is: If I saw it again would I recognise it? Answer: Probably not....
Les Domains, Guernsey, 20th June 2004
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Amended on November 12th 2004