Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Lomariopsis kingii


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

Lomariopsidaceae

Botanical name

Lomariopsis kingii (Copel.) Holttum

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/116449

Common name

King's Climbing Fern

Description

Rhizome c. 1 cm thick, woody, long-creeping to high-climbing; scales ovate, 5–10 mm long, brown, with broadly rounded bases. Fronds moderately crowded, erect to arcuate, dimorphic. Stipe 6–20 cm long, scaly at the base. Lamina, juvenile fronds simple 15–30 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, mature sterile fronds compound, 12–50 cm long; lower pinnae longest. Sterile pinnae 12–25 cm long, 1.5–3.2 cm wide, coriaceous, dark green above, paler beneath; margins slightly irregular; apex acute to acuminate; lower pinnae stalked; upper ones nearly sessile. Lamina of fertile fronds smaller than sterile fronds; pinnae c. 2 mm wide. 

Distribution

Occurs in the Wet Tropics QLD between Bloomfield and Johnstone Rivers. Also in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial, lithophytic or hemi-epiphytic in rainforest, usually climbing up tree trunks in rainforest at low altitudes.

Natural history

This species has variable frond shapes according to habit and habitat.

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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