Phlegmariurus creber

Lycopodiaceae

Phlegmariurus creber (Alderw.) A.R.Field & Bostock

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/51288371

Rat-Tail Tassel-Fern

Epiphytic plants. Branches tufted, pendulous, slender, forked 1–several times, to 120 cm long; sterile portion (including leaves) 2–3 mm diam. Leaves densely spirally arranged, thick, imbricate, appressed or slightly spreading, narrowly triangular, acute, keeled, 3–4 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide, dark green; margins translucent and minutely irregularly toothed. Transition from sterile to sporogenous zone gradual. Sporophylls ovate-triangular, acuminate, keeled, arranged in 4 rows, imbricate, appressed, 2–3 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide. Sporangia occupying half or less of the sporophyll length.

In Australia restricted to mountaintops in the Wet Tropics, NE QLD. Sparsely distributed on mountaintops in the Pacific and Australia.

Epiphytic from upper branches of large emergent rainforest trees in high altitude rainforest.

Can be distinguished from other Australian Phlegmariurus by having shoots less than 5 mm in diameter.