Pronephrium asperum

Thelypteridaceae

Pronephrium asperum (C.Presl) Holttum

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/108769

Rhizome thick, short-creeping. Fronds to c. 2 m long. Stipe to 70 cm long. Lamina to 60 cm long, comprising 6–10 pairs of lateral pinnae and a conform terminal pinna; pinnae to 37 cm long, 6 cm wide, sessile, their sides ±parallel; margins subentire to crenate, rarely more deeply lobed; apex short-acuminate; costules to 5 mm apart; veins 12–15 pairs, at 45° to costule, mostly anastomosing; lower surface of costae and veins shortly hairy; upper surface hairy on costae only. Sori medial; lowest sometimes supramedial, indusiate; indusium very small, with short hairs; sporangia sometimes bearing 1 or 2 setae on the body near the annulus or a 2-celled hair on sporangial stalk. Spores dark brown, winged. 

Wet Tropics from Bloomfield to Herbert River in QLD. Also in Malesia.

Terrestrial in mesic lowland to mid-montane vine forest.

Readily cultivated in a container of free draining mix in a moist shaded tropical garden or fernery.

Pronephrium asperum and Pronephrium triphyllum

Key to Australian Pronephrium spp.:

1a. Fronds trifoliate, lateral pinnae smaller than terminal pinna, pinna margins entire = Pronephrium triphyllum

1b. Fronds with more than three pinnae, lateral pinnae similar in size to terminal pinnae, pinna margins crenate = Pronephrium asperum