Pteris ensiformis

Pteridaceae

Pteris ensiformis Burm.f.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/72590

Slender Braken

Short slender terrestrial and lithophytic ferns. Rhizome short-creeping to suberect, scaly; scales narrowly triangular, brown. Fronds ±dimorphic. Stipe to 20 cm long, pale green; base scaly. Lamina with pinnae (apart from apical pinna) increasing in length from apex to base. Sterile lamina c. 20 cm long; lower pinnae pinnate or pinnatifid, to 16 cm long; ultimate segments oblong to ovate, c. 8–10 mm wide, irregularly serrate. Fertile lamina to c. 30 cm long, narrower than sterile; pinnae forked near their base; ultimate segments linear to narrowly oblong, serrate only at their apices. Veins free, oblique, once- to twice-forked. Sori continuous from near base to near apices of fertile pinnae or pinnules; paraphyses scarce.

Distributed along the eastern coast of Queensland from Iron Range on Cape York in NE QLD to Springbrook in SE QLD. Also in Asia, Malesia and Polynesia.

Terrestrial, often in rocky or damp gullies, on the edge of rock-faces or on hillslopes in wet to dry vine forest or sclerophyll forest and open woodland.

A widely cultivated ornamental fern. Some populations are naturalisations of non-Australian origin. An exotic variegated cultivar is sparingly naturalised in the Cairns district where non-variegated native populations also occur.

Readily cultivated in the ground or a container in a tropical or subtropical garden or fernhouse.