Cyatheaceae
Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition
Alsophila woollsiana
Alsophila woollsiana F.Muell.
Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/83690
Rhizome erect, to 6 m tall, to 15 cm diam.; older stipe bases sometimes shed. Stipe to 80 cm long; base dark and tuberculate; scales dark, thick, basally terete, 1.5–2.5 cm long, c. 2 mm wide, flat but thick distally, with narrow sharply distinct fragile margins and a short thick apical seta; bases of scales covered with a rust-coloured powder. Frond lamina to 2 m long; longest pinnae c. 60 cm long; basal pinnae c. 30 cm long; pinnules commonly to 8 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, lobed thoughout to less than 1 mm from the costa; lobes crenate-serrate; sinuses between them narrow; lower surface of costae with broad flat thin scales; largest scales brownish and bearing setae, grading to smaller pallid ones; many slender flexuous hairs also present; scales on costules similar but smaller. Sori near costules; indusium entirely on costular side of receptacle, small and thin, hidden by mature sporangia; paraphyses shorter than sporangia.
Endemic to NE QLD between the McDowall Range and Seaview Range.
Terrestrial in rainforest, usually along margins in well lit areas and on slopes above creeks.
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).