Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Macrothelypteris torresiana


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Close up of frond showing sori. © CSIRO
Close up of frond showing sori. © CSIRO
Stipe hairs, and crozier. © CSIRO
Habit. © CSIRO
Family

Thelypteridaceae

Botanical name

Macrothelypteris torresiana (Gaudich.) Ching

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/58656

Description

Rhizome very short-creeping, to c. 1 cm diam. Frond to 120 cm long, herbaceous, pale green. Stipe to 50 cm long, glaucous when young; persistent base swollen and covered with narrow dark brown scales. Lamina deeply 3-pinnatifid, to 70 cm long, 50 cm wide; pinnae 12–15 pairs; sub-basal pinnae longest, to 20 cm long, 9 cm wide, pinnate, with all pinnules but the lowest adnate to a narrow green-winged pinna rachis; largest pinnules to 8 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, cut almost to costa in oblique dentate to deeply lobed segments; costae and costules with ±transparent scattered slender hairs on lower surface; some hairs multicellular and more than 1 mm long; lower surface of pinnule bearing short capitate hairs. Sori c. 0.5 mm diam., rounded-reniform, with a few short capitate hairs. Spores irregularly winged. 

Distribution

Iron Range NE QLD to SE QLD, N NT and WA. Also widespread in Asia, Malesia and Pacific Islands.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial on creek banks and disturbed sites in rainforest.

Similar species

Similar to Macrothelypteris polypodioides, from which it may be distinguished by the presence of slender hairs on the rachis (cf. slender multicellular acicular hairs and narrow ciliate scales in M. polypodioides).

Citation of Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/intro/index.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) ‘Platycerium superbum’, in Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/entities/platycerium_superbum.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

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