Austroblechnum penna-marina syn.  Blechnum penna-marina, little hard fern or alpine hard fern occurs in the North, South, Stewart, Chatham, Auckland, Campbell, Antipodes and Macquarie Islands. Also occurs in South America and Australia. One of New Zealands most commonest and easily recognised ferns, it grows in coastal and lowland to alpine regions in grassland, open forest, scrublands, moraine, herb-field, fellfield, rocky places and boggy areas, where it is common throughout the South Island and southern North Island, but local from the Bay of Plenty north. It is readily grown, and in spite  of being common, makes a useful garden plant. Given enough space it will quickly grow to form a dense and handsome ground-cover. It is very useful for rock gardens and stone walls where it will creep around and fill all the gaps between rocks and in crevices. The young fronds can be a reddish colour when it is grown in an open area. One characteristic of this fern is that the fronds stalks are nearly always bent and twisted and are rarely perfectly straight. It will grow in a wide range of conditions and soil types, and will grow easily in sun or semi-shade, moist.