Dendroconche scandens

Polypodiaceae

Dendroconche scandens (G.Forst.) Testo, Sundue & A.R.Field

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/51338044

Rhizome long-creeping, slender, wiry, densely scaly. Scales ovate to narrowly ovate, 2–8 mm long, 1–2.2 mm wide, persistent, squarrose, dark brown to purplish-brown, acuminate, minutely dentate near base. Fronds 7.5–58 cm long (simple fronds 4.5–39 cm long, 0.6–3.1 cm wide), 1–3 cm apart. Stipes 0.6–16 cm long, slender, pale, glossy, sparsely scaly. Lamina deeply pinnatifid or simple, musk-scented when fresh or freshly dried. Lobes typically falcate, strongly ascending, 0.8–10 cm long, 0.25–1.8 cm wide; base of lamina tapering into stipe; margins often wavy; veins reticulate, usually forming only 1 series of areoles between costa (midrib in simple fronds) and lobe margin, glabrous apart from a few scattered scales on midrib and costae. Sori in 1 row close to margin on each side of costa of laminal lobe or midrib in simple fronds, rounded or sometimes elongated, impressed into lamina, forming low protuberances on the upper surface. Spores 47.5–60 µm long, 27.5–40 µm wide. 

Widespread in E Australia from Windsor Tablealnd to Wilsons Promontory. Also in Lord Howe Islands, New Zealand and the Chatham Islands.

Epiphytic or lithophytic in mesic lower to upper montane vine forest and wet sclerophyll forest.

Best cultivated in a hanging container of coarse free draining material in a moist sub-tropical or cool temperate fernery.

Often confused with Zealandia pustulatum from which it can be distinguised by its spreading rhizome scales and its simpler venations (only one series of areoles).

Similar to Dendroconche ampla, but distinguished by its round to elliptical sori (cf. linear in D. scandens).