Cyatheaceae
Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition
Alsophila australis
Alsophila australis R.Br.
Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/83377
Rhizome to c. 12 m tall, 15–40 cm diam., sometimes up to 1.5 m at base. Stipe to 80 cm long; stipe bases with conical spines to 3 mm long, covered with glossy brown scales; scales 2–5 cm long, 1.2–5 mm wide at base, with narrow fragile margins and an apical seta. Frond lamina to 3.5 m long; largest pinnae c. 50 cm long; a few pairs of lower pinnae progressively reduced, extending sometimes nearly to the base of the stipe (most commonly in QLD); pinnules 10–12 cm long, to 2.5 cm wide, with 1 or more pairs of lobes near base separately attached to costa; lobes ±crenate, some lower ones deeply so; veins mostly forked; larger costal scales flat, elongate, brownish, grading to thin flat ±hyaline scales and to small bullate pale tan scales with setose apices; slender crinkled hairs present on costae and costules. Sori at the forks of veins, exindusiate, with irregularly-shaped small scales around receptacle; paraphyses ±same length as sporangia.
Endemic to SE Australia with one record from NE QLD.
Terrestrial on the margin between rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest.
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).