Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Todea barbara


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Close up of frond showing sori. © G. Sankowsky
Frond. © G. Sankowsky
Stipe, rhizome. © G. Sankowsky
Rhizome. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Osmundaceae

Botanical name

Todea barbara (L.) T.Moore

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/97157

Description

Rhizome short or forming a trunk to 3 m tall, with a thick brown root mantle. Stipe smooth. Fronds lanceolate, 0.5–2.5 m long, 15–60 cm wide, occasionally as small as 10 cm long, 4 cm wide, 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, glabrous or pubescent along veins, shiny, pale green; adaxial surface paler. Pinnae 10–30 cm long, 2–12 cm wide, lanceolate, more rarely ovate to oblong in reduced forms; sporogenous pinnae occasionally shorter than sterile ones. Pinnules broadly attached at base, oblong-elliptic, 1.5–8 cm long, 4–9 mm wide; margins serrate. Sporangia at first in discrete groups, then confluent, green turning reddish brown. 

Distribution

E Australia from Mt Windsor Tableland in NE QLD to Tasmania. Also New Zealand and Africa.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial in wet sclerophyll forest, rainforest margins and along creeks.

Natural history

Some populations in northern Queensland have been reduced by harvesting of trunks for Orchid culture.

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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