Once grown to about 5 cm (2.0 in), these offspring fall off and, provided the soil they land in is kept moist, develop a root system and grow into new ferns.

The wings on its leaf axes are more pronounced, most pinnules are fused to the pinna axis rather than stalked, and it bears bulbils more frequently and abundantly than A. gracillimum.

However, DNA evidence has shown these plants are most commonly hybrids between the New Zealand A. bulbiferum and the Australian A.

[2] A global phylogeny of Asplenium published in 2020 divided the genus into eleven clades,[3] which were given informal names pending further taxonomic study.

A. bulbiferum belongs to the "Neottopteris clade", members of which generally have somewhat leathery leaf tissue.