Pteris tripartita

Pteridaceae

Pteris tripartita Sw.

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/72936

Giant Lacy Brake

Large terrestrial ferns. Rhizome short, erect, stout; scales small, triangular, pale brown. Fronds monomorphic. Stipe erect, often 50–150 cm long, stramineous to greenish, robust, grooved, with scattered basal scales. Lamina ±round, broadly triangular or pentagonal, to c. 1.7 m across, herbaceous to chartaceous, glabrous, divided into 3 or more subsimilar radiating 1-pinnate-pinnatifid elements; central element largest. Pinnae to 15 cm long, deeply pinnatifid, shortly stalked; lobes slightly falcate, to c. 35 mm long, to c. 5 mm wide, serrulate (especially the sterile ones), separated by rounded sinuses; veinlets forming elongate areolae along the midvein. Sori broken at lobe apices and sinuses; indusium entire; paraphyses abundant. 

Occurs from Cape Melville to Rockingham Bay NE QLD west to Croydon QLD and northern NT. Also widespread in the Palaeotropics.

Terrestrial in tropical closed forests.

Readily cultivated in the ground or a container in a tropical or subtropical garden or fernhouse.