Hymenophyllum flabellatum

Hymenophyllaceae

Hymenophyllum flabellatum Labill.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/79974

Rhizome wiry, branched, 0.3–0.8 mm diam., tan-coloured, with opaque villous hairs but tomentose at the stipe junction. Fronds 3–35 (–60) cm long, usually pendulous. Stipe wiry, flexuose, 0.8–17 cm long, unwinged, with scattered hairs extending along the main rachis. Lamina very variable in size and shape, oblong-linear to ovate-lanceolate (dwarfed fronds often broadly triangular to round), 2–27 cm long, 1–6.5 cm wide; primary division pinnate in the lower part, deeply pinnatifid above; pinnae or primary laminal segments oblique, 1–2-pinnatifid, flabellate, ovate or rhombic. Ultimate segments linear, 0.5–2.2 mm wide, ±glabrous; margins entire, 1 (–2)-cells thick; apex obtuse, sometimes notched. Sori numerous; involucre ovate to round, bilabiate to below the middle, 0.5–1.3 (–2) mm long, 0.5–1.5 (–2) mm wide; base broadly and shallowly cuneate; margins entire; receptacle included or slightly exserted.

Occurs in north-eastern and south-eastern QLD, eastern NSW, southern Vic and Tasmania; also Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and New Zealand.

Commonly grows on sandstone or as an epiphyte, often on the trunks of Nothofagus moorei, Eucalyptus nitens and Dicksonia antarctica in cool-temperate to tropical rainforest.