Drynaria rigidula

Polypodiaceae

Drynaria rigidula (Sw.) Bedd.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/101219

Rhizome c. 1 cm thick, deciduous-scaly. Scales 2.5–12 mm long, 0.4–1.5 mm wide, gradually tapering from base to acute apex, reddish brown; margins pale brown, bearing fine cilia. Nest fronds narrowly ovate to ovate, 4–39 cm or more long, 3.5–14 cm wide, shallowly or deeply lobed; lobes rounded. Foliage fronds 20–120 (–200) cm long; stipe 5–41 cm long, bearing small lobes spaced similarly to the pinnae. Lamina narrowly ovate, 1-pinnate; pinnae linear, 4–25 cm long, 0.4–3 cm wide, chartaceous to ±coriaceous, with a short narrowly winged stalk; base cuneate; margins shallowly incised (1 incision between each pair of main lateral veins); apex acuminate, acute; costular nectary on basiscopic margin of stalk. Sori round, 1–2 mm diam., in 1 row on each side of the costa; 1 sorus between each pair of main lateral veins, closer to the costa than the margin, impressed into the laminal surface, producing small rounded protuberances on the upper surface. Spores 37.5–57.5 µm long, 15–35 µm wide.

McIlwraith Range NE QLD to NE NSW. Also in Asia and Malesia.

Epiphytic or lithophytic in a wide variety of forest types including coastal beach scrubs, mesic vine forest, wet-sclerophyll forest and exposed cliffs and torrs.

A large mass-forming basket-fern with specialised nest-fronds for catching falling debris. This species usually forms a large clump when growing on a tree or rock and is less likely to be long-creeping than other Australian Drynaria.

Readily cultivated in a hanging container, on a tree or in a rockery in a tropical garden. This species tends to become too large for a fernery. Many leaf cultivars are available.

Drynaria sparsisora and Drynaria quercifolia.

1a. Pinnae borne on a short stalk, pinna margins shallowly incised between each pair of lateral veins = Drynaria rigidula

1b. Pinnae decurrent, pinna margins entire = 2

2a. Sori in 2 regular rows between lateral veins; rhizome scales soft, spreading and persistent = Drynaria quercifolia

2b. Sori scattered between lateral veins; rhizome scales stiff, appressed, not persistent = Drynaria sparsisora