Tectaria brachiata

Tectariaceae

Tectaria brachiata (Zoll. & Moritzi) C.V.Morton

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/83054

Rhizome short, suberect; scales to 5 mm long, medium brown, irregularly fringed with slender hairs when young. Fronds strongly dimorphic. Sterile frond with a stipe to 20 cm long, pale castaneous, scaly near the base only, short-hairy distally. Sterile lamina to 25 cm long; pinnae to 3 pairs; basal pinnae to 15 cm long; largest bearing 1 pair of entire basal pinnules; remainder of pinnae deeply lobed near their bases only; suprabasal pinnae shallowly lobed to subentire, with rounded to subcordate base; apical lamina deltoid, with few broad entire lobes; both surfaces minutely hairy on costae and main veins; marginal hairs on upper surface very few and short; veins richly anastomosing, with many free branched veinlets in areoles; veinlets sometimes branched. Fertile frond with a stipe to 50 cm long. Fertile lamina similar to that of sterile frond, but all parts much contracted; basal pinnae to 10 cm long. Sori on free veinlets in areoles, impressed into lamina; indusium large, thin. 

Occurs on Cape York QLD from Heathlands to Cooktown. Also in Asia and Malesia.

Terrestrial in alluvial soil, earth banks and rocky areas usually in rainforest or palm swamp forest.

Readily cultivated in a greenhouse or garden in a tropical climate. Grows well in a container or tub of moist free draining growing medium.

Tectaria confluens and Tectaria devexa

1a. Free included veinlets absent in costal areoles = T. devexa

1b. Free included veinlets present in costal areoles = 2

2a. Fronds not strongly dimorphic, usually with only one pair of pinnae dissected to midrib = T. confluens

2b. Fronds strongly dimorphic, those of mature plants with 2 or more pairs of pinnae = 3

3a. Supramedial pinnae of fertile fronds lobed = T. brachiata

3b. Supramedial pinnae of fertile fronds entire or nearly so = T. siifolia.