Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Abrodictyum obscurum


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Close up of frond. © G. Sankowsky
Close up of frond. © G. Sankowsky
Close up of frond. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © CSIRO
Family

Hymenophyllaceae

Botanical name

Abrodictyum obscurum (Blume) Ebihara & K.Iwats.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/241956

Description

Terrestrial. Rhizome erect, to 2 cm tall, or very shortly creeping; roots woody and prop-like. Fronds 13–32 cm long. Stipes clustered, to 20 cm long, 0.5–1 mm diam., glabrous except at the base, with 2 narrow longitudinal ridges. Lamina 3-pinnate to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, ovate to broadly triangular, 5–15 cm long, 2–9 cm wide, thinly coriaceous, rigid, dark olive-green; apex acute to acuminate, erect or deflexed; secondary pinnae sometimes more dissected on the lower margin. Ultimate segments flat or curled, oblanceolate; apex finely toothed. Sori borne on short lobes in the axils of tertiary segments; involucre cylindrical, 1.5–2 mm long, 0.5–0.6 mm wide, narrowly winged, sometimes reflexed, with scurfy hairs, especially near the base; mouth truncate or slightly dilated; base narrowly cuneate, greatly attenuated; receptacle long-exserted, curved, projecting up to 1.5 cm beyond the mouth of the involucre.

Distribution

From Torres Strait CYP through NE QLD to Nimbin in NSW. Also near Darwin in NT. Also in Malesia from Taiwan to Solomon Islands.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial or among rocks in damp gullies and caves in mesic lowland to upper montane vine forest.

Citation of Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/intro/index.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) ‘Platycerium superbum’, in Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/entities/platycerium_superbum.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

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