Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Marsilea drummondii


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Habit. © M. Fagg, APII
Frond, habit, sporocarps. © M. Fagg, APII
Family

Marsileaceae

Botanical name

Marsilea drummondii A.Braun

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/104421

Common name

Common nardoo

Description

Rhizome long-creeping, much branched, bearing nodal roots and peltate dense brownish apical scales. Fronds 2–30 cm long, solitary or clustered. Stipes glabrous or scaly. Leaflets broadly obovate to broadly cuneate, 10–35 mm long, 3–10 mm wide, glabrous or scaly; outer margin rounded, entire to deeply crenate. Sporocarps solitary or clustered; stalks 10–50 mm long, unbranched, 2–10 times the length of the conceptacle, glabrous to scaly; conceptacles oblong, 4–9 mm long, densely scaly, faintly to distinctly ribbed; upper basal tooth triangular, acute; lower basal tooth longer, obtuse

Distribution

Endemic to inland areas of WA, NT, SA, QLD, NSW and Vic.

Habit and habitat

Aquatic amphibious herb grows in still or sluggishly moving waters.

Natural history

Plants in more arid regions are more densely scaly. Aborigines collected the sporocarps and ground them as food.

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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