Calochlaena villosa

Dicksoniaceae

Calochlaena villosa (C.Chr.) M.D.Turner & R.A.White

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/177766

Rhizome suberect, forming a short thick woody trunk, hairy at the apex; hairs reddish brown. Fronds moderately crowded, 50–150 cm long, erect and spreading, pale green to yellow green. Stipe about as long as the lamina, with long reddish hairs towards the base. Lamina broadly triangular, 3–4-pinnate, to 1 m long and broad, subcoriaceous, hairy; hairs greyish, soft and thin, particularly dense on the undersurfaces of rachises and veins, a few reddish hairs also on the main rachis; rachises pale; ulimate segments oblique to the rachis, bluntly lobed; margins recurved. Sori in 2 marginal rows. 

Occurs in montane areas between Windsor Tableland and Evelyn Tableland in NE QLD. Also in Papua New Guinea.

Terrestrial in wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest, usually above 600 m.

This fern may form dense thickets in a localised area.

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

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