Asplenium polyodon

Aspleniaceae

Asplenium polyodon G.Forst.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/105813

Sickle Spleenwort

Ferns with semi-erect or pendent fronds. Rhizome short-creeping, scaly. Stipe and rachis dark red-brown, glossy, brittle, sparsely scaly; stipe 9–65 cm long, 1–3 mm diam. Lamina narrowly elliptic, pinnate, 15–120 cm long, 5–26 cm wide, dark green and glossy above, pale green and dull below with prominent veins, sparsely scaly. Pinnae in 10–40 pairs, narrowly ovate to ovate, sometimes with an enlarged basal acroscopic lobe; bases unequally cuneate, shortly stalked; margins doubly serrate; apices acuminate; longest pinnae near middle, 3–17 cm long, 7–27 mm wide, gradually reducing upwards and abruptly contracted to an acuminate pinnatifid apical portion. Sori often slightly curved away from midrib, to 20 mm long. Perispores dark with smooth broad ridges and smooth lacunae; exospores 28.2–31.1 × 17.3–18.6 µm (means). 

Windsor Tableland NE QLD to southern NSW and Christmas, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. Also widespread in the Palaeotropics.

Epiphytic, often from other epiphytes, or lithophytic in high-rainfall rainforest or wet-sclerophyll forest. This species often grows in the rainforest canopy from the base of Asplenium or Platycerium ferns or from humus in large trunk forks.

A polymorphic species with several named varieties and natural hybrids reported. It is a handsome ornamental fern that is commonly cultivated.

Best cultivated in a hanging container or in the base of a nest-fern in a cool moist tropical garden or fernery.

Similar to Asplenium parvum but distinguished by A. polyodon being sparsely scaly on its stipe and rachis and by its longer pinnae.