Cheilanthes contigua

Pteridaceae

Cheilanthes contigua Baker

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/62359

Fronds to 64 cm long and 16 cm wide; stipe and rachis red-brown to black, glabrous or with sparse hairs (1–15 cells); lamina ovate or triangular, 3-pinnate or 4-pinnatifid at base, 2-pinnate for most of length; larger pinnae triangular-ovate; pinnules linear, oblong, lanceolate or ovate; ultimate pinnules incised at the base and caudate at apex; margins slightly crenate; upper and lower surfaces glabrous or with sparse, short or minute hairs, often along the midrib. Spores with varying amount of echinate ornamentation, either tetrahedral, trilete, 32–48 µm diam. and 32 per sporangium, or spherical, 51–60 µm diam. and 16 per sporangium.

Asia, Malesia and Australia. In Australia it occurs in the northern tropics of WA, NT and QLD from Cape York Peninsula to Greenvale.

Terrestrial in the groundlayer of open woodland on a variety of soils. Not usually a rainforest species.

Cheilanthes contigua may be distingused from C. prenticei but the shorter hairs that are more dense on the upper lamina surface (c.f. longer hars that are more dense on the lower lamina surface in C. prenticei).