[1] The specific epithet gracillimum refers to the slender and graceful appearance of this fern.

A. gracillimum has larger spores than A. bulbiferum, and fewer bulbils.

The scales are ovate on A. bulbiferum, but narrower and almost always drawn out into thin threadlike points in A. gracillimum (filiform apices).

[3][4][5] A 2020 plastid phylogeny of Asplenium showed a sample of the species nested within a clade containing both of its parents.

[6] The hen and chicken fern commonly grows in most bush areas in New Zealand.