Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Davallia pyxidata


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Close up of frond showing sori. © G. Sankowsky
Close up of frond showing sori. © CSIRO
Frond. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © CSIRO
Rhizome. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Davalliaceae

Botanical name

Davallia pyxidata Cav.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/81645

Common name

Hare's-Foot Fern

Description

Rhizome, thick, white, waxy, scales usually falling complete. Fronds markedly dimorphic, 10–50 cm long, 5–25 cm at widest point, coriaceous. Stipe 3–16 cm long, glabrous except at extreme base; rachis glabrous except for a few crisped hairs in axils. Sori submarginal; indusium usually c. 1 mm long, often unattached at sides near apex, flaring slightly. 

Distribution

Endemic to E Australia from the Wet Tropics QLD to central NSW coast.

Habit and habitat

Epiphytic, lithophytic or occasionally terrestrial in a wide variety of vine forest and wet sclerophyll forest. A common inhabitant of Drynaria and Platycerium nests.

Natural history

An attractive ornamental fern that can be invasive in greenhouse situations.

Cultivation

Easy to cultivate in a hanging container or planted in a nest-fern in a tropical or subtropical garden or fernery.

Similar species

Similar to Davallia solida but differing in lamina shape, Davallia pyxidata having deciduous rhizome scales and having rhizomes that stick out from the substrate, especially when growing in other epiphtyes.

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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