Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes - Online edition

Pteris tripartita


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Close up of frond showing sori. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © G. Sankowsky
Habit. © G. Sankowsky
Family

Pteridaceae

Botanical name

Pteris tripartita Sw.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/72936

Common name

Giant Lacy Brake

Description

Large terrestrial ferns. Rhizome short, erect, stout; scales small, triangular, pale brown. Fronds monomorphic. Stipe erect, often 50–150 cm long, stramineous to greenish, robust, grooved, with scattered basal scales. Lamina ±round, broadly triangular or pentagonal, to c. 1.7 m across, herbaceous to chartaceous, glabrous, divided into 3 or more subsimilar radiating 1-pinnate-pinnatifid elements; central element largest. Pinnae to 15 cm long, deeply pinnatifid, shortly stalked; lobes slightly falcate, to c. 35 mm long, to c. 5 mm wide, serrulate (especially the sterile ones), separated by rounded sinuses; veinlets forming elongate areolae along the midvein. Sori broken at lobe apices and sinuses; indusium entire; paraphyses abundant. 

Distribution

Occurs from Cape Melville to Rockingham Bay NE QLD west to Croydon QLD and northern NT. Also widespread in the Palaeotropics.

Habit and habitat

Terrestrial in tropical closed forests.

Cultivation

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

Citation of Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/intro/index.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

Field AR, Quinn CJ, Zich FA (2022) ‘Platycerium superbum’, in Australian Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes. apps.lucidcentral.org/fern/text/entities/platycerium_superbum.htm (accessed online INSERT DATE).

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