Microsorum membranifolium

Polypodiaceae

Microsorum membranifolium (R.Br.) Ching

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/73505

Rhizome short-creeping, fleshy, greenish, scaly. Scales ovate to broadly ovate, dense, appressed, caducous, 2.8–4.4 mm long, 1–3.2 mm wide, brown, glossy; margins entire or with a few small teeth; apex acute, often broken off; a few scales persisting on older rhizomes. Fronds 7.5 cm to more than 1 m long, 0.5–2 cm apart. Stipes 2–40 cm long, pale, glabrous and glossy apart from a few appressed scales at base. Lamina deeply pinnatifid, pale green, glabrous, sometimes interspersed with simple laminae which may be fertile, with 1–20 or more laminal lobes. Lobes narrowly ovate to strap-shaped, 4.5–41 cm long, 0.8–5 cm wide, narrowed towards base; margins usually slightly wavy; apex long-attenuate. Terminal segment usually elongate. Main lateral veins prominent, pale, with a series of large areoles adjacent to costa and usually 2 smaller outer series; main areoles with finer internal networks of areoles with many free included veinlets. Sori 3–6 mm diam., in 1 row on each side of costa of laminal lobe in centre of large inner areoles, deeply impressed into lamina, forming very prominent rounded-conical protuberances on upper surface; hair-like paraphyses present among young sporangia. Spores 42.5–60 µm long, 27.5–40 µm wide. 

Occurs in NE QLD in the Mossman-Daintree and Babinda-Bartle Frere region. Also in Asia, Malesia and the Pacific Islands.

Epiphytic or lithophytic in mesic lower- to upper-montane rainforest. Often near creeks and waterfalls.

Best cultivated in a hanging container of coarse free draining material in a moist tropical fernery.