Calciphilopteris ludens

Pteridaceae

Calciphilopteris ludens (Wall. ex Hook.) Yesilyurt & H.Schneider

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/248541

Rhizome long-creeping; scales triangular, c. 3 mm long, red-brown or blackish, usually with paler denticulate margins. Fronds dimorphic; sterile fronds 4–45 cm long; fertile fronds 20–65 cm long. Stipes spaced 1–1.5 cm apart, black or more rarely dark brown, terete, ±glabrous. Lamina ovate to cordate (with an acute apex) to palmatifid (with 5 unequal lobes); lateral lobes much shorter than the terminal one; lowest pair of lobes sometimes with 1 or 2 secondary lobes on the basiscopic side, coriaceous; margins cartilaginous, entire or occasionally crenate; main veins raised and black below; minor veins anastomosing but with the ultimate vein ends nearly all free, ending in a series of submarginal hydathodes. Sterile lamina c. 2–15 cm long. Fertile lamina broadly triangular, deeply pinnatifid, 9–20 cm long, usually with 3 pairs of ascending falcate lobes; lowest pair much larger than the rest, usually with 1 or 2 secondary lobes on the basiscopic side, the lobes usually 1–1.5 cm wide near the base, narrowing to an acute apex. Sori continuous along margin except for very short sections near lobe apices and in sinuses; indusium membranous, linear, ±continuous. Spores brown; exospore smooth with a coarsely rugose perispore. 

One record in Australia near Cooktown. Also widespread in India, Asia, Malesia, Melaneisa.

Terrestrial or lithophytic in closed vine forest. In Malesia it is associated with limestone.

This taxon may have been introduced.

Readily cultivated in a large pot or in the ground in a shaded tropical or subtropical garden or fernery.

Similar to Doryopteris concolor:

1a. Fronds dimorphic, veins anastomosing = Calciphilopteris ludens

2a. Fronds monomorphic, veins not anastomosing = Doryopteris concolor