Tmesipteris ovata

Psilotaceae

Tmesipteris ovata N.A.Wakef.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/96852

Epiphytic plants. Aerial shoots unbranched, pendulous, 5–20 cm long, growing for one season and terminating in a sterile leaf similar in length to or longer than other leaves. Leaves spirally arranged, elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate, 4–9 per cm, 6–14 mm long, 2–3.5 mm wide; surfaces shiny; apex obtuse, mucronate. Synangia restricted to upper half of shoot, testiculate, 2.5–4 mm long; length 2–2.5 times height. 

NE QLD to Vic. Also widespread in the Pacific.

Epiphytic from tree trunks or occasionally lithophytic from moss or humus on boulders in wet rainforest, usually near streams. This species often grows from tree ferns.

Domin recorded Tmesipteris lanceolata from NE QLD in 1913 but supporting material has not been located and it has not been recorded again. Although this species is considered extinct in Australia there is limited evidence that it ever occurred here and it is possible that Domin's record referred to the similar sympatric species Tmesipteris ovata which had not been described at the time of Domin's record.

Rarely cultivated as it is difficult to grow.

Key to tropical Australian Tmesipteris spp.:

1a. Synangium lobes pointed = Tmesipteris truncata

1b. Synangium lobes rounded = 2

2a. Leaves concolourous, shiny on both surfaces = Tmesipteris ovata

2b. Leaves discolorous, shiny on upper surface, dull on lower surface = Tmesipteris lanceolata.