Macrothelypteris torresiana

Thelypteridaceae

Macrothelypteris torresiana (Gaudich.) Ching

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/58656

Rhizome very short-creeping, to c. 1 cm diam. Frond to 120 cm long, herbaceous, pale green. Stipe to 50 cm long, glaucous when young; persistent base swollen and covered with narrow dark brown scales. Lamina deeply 3-pinnatifid, to 70 cm long, 50 cm wide; pinnae 12–15 pairs; sub-basal pinnae longest, to 20 cm long, 9 cm wide, pinnate, with all pinnules but the lowest adnate to a narrow green-winged pinna rachis; largest pinnules to 8 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, cut almost to costa in oblique dentate to deeply lobed segments; costae and costules with ±transparent scattered slender hairs on lower surface; some hairs multicellular and more than 1 mm long; lower surface of pinnule bearing short capitate hairs. Sori c. 0.5 mm diam., rounded-reniform, with a few short capitate hairs. Spores irregularly winged. 

Iron Range NE QLD to SE QLD, N NT and WA. Also widespread in Asia, Malesia and Pacific Islands.

Terrestrial on creek banks and disturbed sites in rainforest.

Similar to Macrothelypteris polypodioides, from which it may be distinguished by the presence of slender hairs on the rachis (cf. slender multicellular acicular hairs and narrow ciliate scales in M. polypodioides).