Thelypteridaceae
Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition
Pronephrium asperum
Pronephrium asperum (C.Presl) Holttum
Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/108769
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.
Wet Tropics from Bloomfield to Herbert River in QLD. Also in Malesia.
Terrestrial in mesic lowland to mid-montane vine forest.
Readily cultivated in a container of free draining mix in a moist shaded tropical garden or fernery.
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
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).