Schizaea bifida

Schizeaceae

Schizaea bifida Willd.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/106484

Rhizome short-creeping, densely clothed with glossy pale to dark brown hairs. Fronds clustered, erect, 7–55 cm long, 0.6–1.2 mm wide, subterete, and furrowed on 1 side or flattened, smooth to scabrid, undivided or dichotomously divided 1 or more times (to 32 branchlets), pubescent at first, becoming smooth or scabrid; sterile fronds shorter and more divided than sporogenous ones or, more rarely, absent; sporogenous heads ovate-triangular to obliquely oblong, 5–30 mm long, 2–4 times longer than broad, broadest near the base, tapering distally, often recurved; segments 5–12 mm long, smooth to scabrid; margins with long, brown hairs. Sporangia mixed with pale brown hairs. 

Widespread along the NE and E coast of Australia from Shelbourne Bay QLD to Vic.

Terrestrial in open forest and heath in coastal areas.

Considered difficult to propagate and establish.