Hypolepis elegans

Dennstaedtiaceae

Hypolepis elegans Carruth.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/67252

Rhizome long creeping, hairy. Stipe and rachis dark chestnut-brown at base, yellow-brown or green at apex, bearing abundant non-glandular hairs; stipe 30–95 cm long, 4–8 mm diam. Lamina broadly ovate or broader than long, 40–100 cm long, 45–80 cm wide, 4–5-pinnate at base, with abundant colourless and brownish stiff curved sharply pointed non-glandular hairs on underside of veins and midribs, to 1 mm long. Primary pinnae in 20–25 pairs; longest 28–70 cm long, 20–50 cm wide. Longest secondary pinnae 13–35 cm long, 4–18 cm wide. Longest tertiary pinnae 2.5–11 cm long, 8–50 mm wide. Quaternary pinnae 4–30 mm long, 2–12 mm wide, often divided to midribs; ultimate pinnules falcate. Veins ending in apices of ultimate segments. Sori lacking paraphyses, protected by sharply reflexed membranous flaps. Spores pale, echinate, 26–28 × 17–19 µm. 

Occurs in NE QLD, NE NSW and S Vic. Also in the Pacific Islands.

Terrestrial, mostly in well-lit disturbed situations adjacent rainforest or wet-sclerophyll forest.