Diplazium australe

Athyriaceae

Diplazium australe (R.Br.) N.A.Wakef.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/77402

Austral Lady Fern

Rhizome erect, to 8 cm long, with dull dark brown to black scales. Fronds arcuate. Stipe 24–80 cm long, black and scaly at the base, deeply 3-grooved. Lamina 3-pinnate, 30–120 cm long, broadly triangular, 20–90 cm wide, membranous, brittle, dark green. Pinnules oblong, 5–25 mm long, 2–10 mm wide; base broadly attached to the axis; margins bluntly toothed or shallowly lobed less than half-way to the costule, decurrent on the lower side; apex obtuse. Sori 1–2 mm long, 3–5 per pinnule, mostly single; indusium pale brown, fragile.

Wet Tropics, Eungella and subtropical and temperate eastern Australia. Also in New Zealand.

Terrestrial in shaded gullies in wet sclerophyll forest and rainforest.

Similar to Diplazium queenslandicum.

1a. Pinnules of fertile laminae tooched or lobed less than a third of the distance to the midvein; margins on the lower side decurrent; indusium fawn = D. australe

1b. Pinnules of fertile laminae lobed more than half-way to the midvein; margin on the lower side not decurrent indusium brown to dark brown = D. queenslandicum