Pteridaceae
Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition
Pteris ensiformis
Pteris ensiformis Burm.f.
Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/72590
Slender Braken
Short slender terrestrial and lithophytic ferns. Rhizome short-creeping to suberect, scaly; scales narrowly triangular, brown. Fronds ±dimorphic. Stipe to 20 cm long, pale green; base scaly. Lamina with pinnae (apart from apical pinna) increasing in length from apex to base. Sterile lamina c. 20 cm long; lower pinnae pinnate or pinnatifid, to 16 cm long; ultimate segments oblong to ovate, c. 8–10 mm wide, irregularly serrate. Fertile lamina to c. 30 cm long, narrower than sterile; pinnae forked near their base; ultimate segments linear to narrowly oblong, serrate only at their apices. Veins free, oblique, once- to twice-forked. Sori continuous from near base to near apices of fertile pinnae or pinnules; paraphyses scarce.
Distributed along the eastern coast of
Terrestrial, often in rocky or damp gullies, on the edge of rock-faces or on hillslopes in wet to dry vine forest or sclerophyll forest and open woodland.
A widely cultivated ornamental fern. Some populations are naturalisations of non-Australian origin. An exotic variegated cultivar is sparingly naturalised in the
Readily cultivated in the ground or a container in a tropical or subtropical garden or fernhouse.
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).