Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Pronephrium asperum


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

Thelypteridaceae

Botanical name

Pronephrium asperum (C.Presl) Holttum

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/108769

Description

Rhizome thick, short-creeping. Fronds to c. 2 m long. Stipe to 70 cm long. Lamina to 60 cm long, comprising 6–10 pairs of lateral pinnae and a conform terminal pinna; pinnae to 37 cm long, 6 cm wide, sessile, their sides ±parallel; margins subentire to crenate, rarely more deeply lobed; apex short-acuminate; costules to 5 mm apart; veins 12–15 pairs, at 45° to costule, mostly anastomosing; lower surface of costae and veins shortly hairy; upper surface hairy on costae only. Sori medial; lowest sometimes supramedial, indusiate; indusium very small, with short hairs; sporangia sometimes bearing 1 or 2 setae on the body near the annulus or a 2-celled hair on sporangial stalk. Spores dark brown, winged. 

Distribution

Wet Tropics from Bloomfield to Herbert River in QLD. Also in Malesia.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial in mesic lowland to mid-montane vine forest.

Cultivation

Readily cultivated in a container of free draining mix in a moist shaded tropical garden or fernery.

Similar species

Pronephrium asperum and Pronephrium triphyllum

Key to Australian Pronephrium spp.:

1a. Fronds trifoliate, lateral pinnae smaller than terminal pinna, pinna margins entire = Pronephrium triphyllum

1b. Fronds with more than three pinnae, lateral pinnae similar in size to terminal pinnae, pinna margins crenate = Pronephrium asperum

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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