Sphaeropteris celebica

Cyatheaceae

Sphaeropteris celebica (Blume) R.M.Tryon

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/119226

Rhizome to 6 m tall, to 30 cm diam. Stipe to 1 m long, strongly spiny at base, blackish purple; spines 3–6 mm long, black, shiny; basal scales to 40 mm long, 1 mm wide, pale brown to whitish; short marginal setae very oblique; rest of stipe and rachises covered with minute, setiferous or fringed, interlacing scales. Lamina to 3 m long; pinnae to 70 cm long; pinnules to 13 cm long and 2 cm wide, with most lobes separately attached to costae, and lower ones as distinct tertiary leaflets which may be stalked; tertiary pinnules with cordate base and serrate margins; scales near base of costae elongate, shorter distally, all setiferous; similar scales on costule base; costules and veins bearing small, pale scales with slender, marginal hairs interlacing over the entire surface. Sori submedial (slightly nearer costule than margin) covered with overlapping fringed usually persistent, scales; paraphyses numerous, shorter than the sporangia.

NE QLD between Black Mountain and Paluma. Also in New Guinea and the Moluccas.

Terrestrial in montane rainforest, usually on steep banks.

This uncommon tree-fern is readily identified by the presence of spines on the stipe bases and woolly indument on the rhizome between the stipes.

Distinguishable from Sphaeropteris australis by mature sori being covered by scales (cf. scales deciduous, mature sori naked in S. australis).