Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Cheilanthes sieberi


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Close up of frond showing sori. © G. Sankowsky
Close up of frond showing sori. © G. Sankowsky
Frond. © G. Sankowsky
Frond. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © G. Sankowsky
Stipe showing hairs. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Pteridaceae

Botanical name

Cheilanthes sieberi Kunze

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/62485

Description

Fronds to 35 cm long and 3.5 cm wide; stipe and rachis dark brown or red-brown, glabrous or with sparse to moderately dense hairs (to 10 cells, often twisted and glandular), densest at stipe-rachis-rachilla junctions, with some scales. Lamina linear-lanceolate or ovate, 3-pinnate at base, 2-pinnate for most of length; larger pinnae triangular-ovate; pinnules lanceolate, ovate or elliptic; margins deeply incised, inrolled; upper and lower surfaces glabrous or with twisted hairs. Spores spherical, verrucose, with varying amounts of globular, branched or reticulate deposits; either black, ridged, 49–73 µm diam. and 16 per sporangium, or brown, trilete, 36–52 µm diam. and 32 per sporangium. 

Distribution

Found in all states of Australia except Tas and the ACT. Also in New Zealand and New Caledonia.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial in soil pockets and rock cracks, usually in rocky areas in open woodland.

Natural history

A species with two subspecies distinguished by lamina indument. Reported to poison stock (S.L. Everist, Poisonous Pl. Austral. 2nd edn, 1981).

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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