Parablechnum wurunuran

Blechnaceae

Parablechnum wurunuran (Parris) Gasper & Salino

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/8033534

Rhizome short-creeping to erect. Fronds dimorphic, 43–135 cm long, 13–43 cm wide. Stipe 22–70 cm long, dark brown to reddish brown at base, often stramineous above; scales lanceolate, acuminate, entire or sometimes with marginal outgrowths, brown to reddish brown, sometimes bicolorous; lanuginose hairs also present. Lamina lanceolate to ovate, pinnate, with up to 29 pairs of pinnae; rachis and costae brown, reddish brown to stramineous; larger scales lanceolate, acuminate, reddish brown, mostly entire; fine matted scales and lanuginose hairs often present; papillae sometimes present especially near the groove; sterile pinnae narrowly ovate to linear-oblong, 7–27 cm long, 12–23 mm wide, shortly stalked at base of lamina, basiscopically adnate at apex; margins crenate and serrate; basal pinnae similar or slightly shorter; fertile pinnae linear, 10–21 cm long, 3–4 mm wide. Spores 59 × 43 µm; perine alate-costate; muri with ciliate margins; exine scaberulous. 

Endemic to NE QLD between Mt Finnegan and Paluma.

Terrestrial, usually near creek banks in rainforest in montane areas.

Difficult to grow in the lowland wet tropics.

Parablechnum wurunuran is similar to Parablechnum wattsii from southern Queensland, but in the former the rachis and costal scales are mostly entire, versus dentate.