Gastoniella ascensionis
species of plant
Gastoniella ascensionis, the Ascension Island parsley fern, is a species of fern in the family Pteridaceae that is endemic to Ascension Island, a volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three species in the genus Gastoniella. It was thought to have become extinct due to habitat loss, until four plants were found on the island in 2010. Over 60 specimens were then successfully cultivated at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and on Ascension Island. It is now classified as Critically Endangered.
The small fern has delicate yellow-green leaves which appear similar to small sprigs of parsley. It was first recorded in 1842 by an amateur botanist, A.B. Curror, and then officially described and named by Joseph Dalton Hooker after a visit he made to the island in 1843. It is endemic to the steep slopes of Green Mountain on the island. Another specimen was recorded in 1889, with few or no reports of specimens again until 1958, when a British scientist collected one on the north slope of the mountain. Further searches were conducted in 1976, 1986 and 1995 but were unsuccessful, and in 2003 it was officially declared extinct.
The public source identifies “Gastoniella ascensionis” as species of plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gastoniella, ascensionis and species.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q43372081. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010, 1842, 1843 and 1889.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gastoniella ascensionis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.