Oceaniopteris whelanii

Blechnaceae

Oceaniopteris whelanii (F.M.Bailey) Gasper & Salino

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/8029167

Rhizome semi-erect to erect. Fronds variously dimorphic (but sori never completely covering the underside of fertile pinnae), 17–90 cm long, 6–32 cm wide. Stipe 7–42 cm long, reddish brown to black at base, sometimes becoming stramineous above; scales at base lanceolate to linear, subulate, entire, dark reddish brown to black, shiny, usually glabrous above. Lamina deltoid, ovate to lanceolate, pinnate-pinnatisect, with 3–13 pairs of pinnae; rachis and costae dark reddish brown to stramineous, glabrous at maturity; sterile pinnae lanceolate to linear-oblong, acuminate, 5–24 cm long, 13–26 mm wide, stalked at base of lamina, semi-adnate to adnate towards apex; margins serrate; basal pinnae only slightly shorter; fertile pinnae usually narrower, linear, acuminate. Sori c. 1 mm wide on each side of costa. Spores 38 × 27 µm; perine scaberulous to minutely rugulose; exine smooth to verrucose. 

Endemic to NE QLD in upper montane areas of the Windsor, Carbine and Atherton Tablelands and surrounding mountains.

Terrestrial along creek banks in sunlit areas in rainforest and in microphyll rainforest at high altitude.

Difficult to grow in the lowland wet tropics.