Asplenium platyneuron plant. Similar buds have also been reported from the single-sorus spleenwort, "Asplenium monanthes". The species most similar to "Asplenium platyneuron" is the black-stemmed spleenwort, "A. resiliens". However, this stipe of this species is darker, and the pinnae are opposite, rather than alternate, along the rachis. Neither black-stemmed spleenwort nor the other pinnate American spleenworts have dimorphic fertile and sterile fronds. It might be confused with a young Christmas fern, "Polystichum acrostichoides", but that species is generally much larger and has a green, scaly stipe and rachis. It is very similar to Boydston's spleenwort, "Asplenium × boydstoniae", a backcross with Tutwiler's
Plant cover Plant cover The abundances of plant species are often measured by plant cover, which is the relative area covered by different plant species in a small plot. Plant cover is not biased by the size and distributions of individuals, and is an important and often measured characteristic of the composition of plant communities. Plant cover data may be used to classify the studied plant community into a vegetation type, to test different ecological hypothesis on plant abundance, and in gradient studies, where the effects of different environmental gradients on the abundance of specific plant species are investigated. The most common