Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Calochlaena dubia


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Close up of frond showing sori. © CSIRO
Close up of frond showing upper (adaxial) surface. © G. Sankowsky
Frond. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © CSIRO
Stipe hairs. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Dicksoniaceae

Botanical name

Calochlaena dubia (R.Br.) M.D.Turner & R.A.White

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/99114

Description

Rhizome short- to medium-creeping, 1.5–2 cm thick, bearing red roots, hairy; hairs soft, some short and silvery, others longer and brown. Fronds moderately crowded, 30–150 cm long, erect with drooping tips, green to yellow green. Stipe about as long as lamina, hairy towards the base. Lamina broadly triangular, 3–4-pinnate, 30–80 cm long and broad, herbaceous to coriaceous, sparsely hairy; hairs more dense on the undersurfaces of rachises and veins; rachises pale, often mottled with brown. Ultimate segments oblique to the rachis, bluntly lobed; margins recurved. Sori in 2 marginal rows. 

Distribution

Endemic to eastern Australia from Windsor Tableland in NE QLD to Tasmania.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial in open forest, wet-sclerophyll forest and rainforest margins, usually on hillslopes.

Natural history

A pioneer in disturbed sites, road banks and cuttings.

Similar species

1a. Rhizome creeping, rachis undersurfaces sparsely hairy = Calochlaena dubia

1b. Rhizome suberect, rachis undersurfaces densely hairy = Calochlaena villosa

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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