PyrrosiaMirb. in J.B.A.P. de Lamarck & C.F.B. de Mirbel Hist. Nat. Vég. 3: 471 & 5: 91(1802) from the Greek pyrros (flame-coloured), in allusion to the reddish yellow colour given to the fronds of some species by their stellate indumentum
Type: P. chinensis Mirb. = P. stigmosa (Sw.) Ching
Epiphytes or lithophytes. Rhizome creeping; scales non-clathrate, usually peltate at base. Fronds usually thickish, fleshy, usually simple, monomorphic or dimorphic; stipe articulate with rhizome, usually covered with caducous, stellate hairs; lamina usually decurrent onto stipe, ±covered with caducous, stellate hairs; veins complex-reticulate, usually obscure. Sori round or elongate, often confluent, usually occupying apical portion of frond, with stellate paraphyses.
An Old World, mostly pantropical, genus of just over 50 species, especially from SE Asia; 1 species native to Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.
G.Bentham, Filices, Polypodium, Fl. Austral. 7: 767 (1878); P.H.Hovenkamp, A Monograph of the Fern Genus Pyrrosia, Leiden, 1986.
Polypodium confluens R.Br., Prodr. 146 (1810); Cyclophorus confluens (R.Br.) C.Chr., Index Filic. 198 (1905).T: Hunter and Paterson Rivers, Australia, 1804, R.Brown; syn: BM. The epithet is Latin for running together, in reference to the sori.
Drymoglossum carnosum J.Sm., J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 66 (1841), non Hook. (1842); Drymoglossum cunninghamii T.Moore, Index Fil. xxxi (1857), nom. nud.T: Norfolk Is., A.Cunningham; holo: K.
Niphobolus ovalis C.Presl, Epim. Bot. 129 (1849); Crespedaria ovalis (C.Presl) C.Presl, op. cit. 263.T: Norfolk Island, C.Hügel; ?iso: W.
[Polypodium serpens auct. non G.Forst.: F.J.H. von Mueller, Fragm. 9: 78 (1875); J.H.Maiden, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 28: 729 (1904)]
[Polypodium acrostichoides auct. non G.Forst.: J.H.Maiden, op. cit. 730 (1904)]
Illustrations: D.L.Jones, Encycl. Ferns 251, 252 (1987); S.B.Andrews, Ferns Queensland 291, fig. 28.7D (1990); P.G.Wilson in G.J.Harden, Fl. New South Wales 1: 40, t. 4 (1990).
Epiphytic or lithophytic fern. Rhizome much-branched, 1–2 mm diam., covered with long, acute, appressed, peltate scales, 2–5 mm long, 0.5–1 mm broad, fringed with long, white hairs. Fronds simple, ±dimorphic, fleshy-coriaceous, densely covered with stellate hairs below, sparsely so above, entire or obscurely sinuate; stipe 0.2–4 cm long, stellate-hairy, becoming glabrous; sterile fronds ovate-elliptic to lanceolate-linear with lamina 1–10 cm long, 0.7–1.5 cm broad, decurrent at base, blunt at apex; fertile fronds lanceolate-linear with lamina 4–20 cm long, 0.8–1.5 cm broad; veins reticulate, usually with obscure hydathodes near or on margins above. Sori superficial, usually as 2 oblong patches formed by lateral fusion, rarely a short row of sori.
Norfolk Is., Lord Howe Is. A common epiphyte on Norfolk Is.; on Lord Howe Is. less common. Also known from Australia (Qld, N.S.W.), and New Caledonia.
On Lord Howe Is. occurs in drier forest.
N.Is.: N slope of Mt Bates, R.D.Hoogland 11277 (K, NSW); between Palm Glen and Red Rd, R.J.Chinnock 5966 (AD, K); s. loc., 1902, J.H.Maiden & J.L.Boorman (A, K, NSW). L.H.Is.: lower slopes of Mt Eliza, P.S.Green 1578 (K, NSW); spur running S from Malabar, J.Pickard in A.N.Rodd 1403 (NSW); Mt Malabar, M.Percival 10 (BRI).
M.Tindale (Contr. New South Wales Natl. Herb. 3: 35, 36, 1961) commented that the plants from New Caledonia, Norfolk Is. and Lord Howe Is. differ slightly from those of the Australian mainland, and recognised the New Caledonian plant as a separate subspecies. However, P.H.Hovenkamp (op. cit. 169), commented that the Norfolk Is. representatives are very often intermediate, and does not treat the New Caledonian plant as a distinct taxon.
P.H.Hovenkamp (op. cit. 179) attributes one specimen from Norfolk Is. (A.Cunningham 33, U) to P. eleagnifolia (Bory) Hovenkamp, and (p. 235) another single sheet from Norfolk Is. (Hügel s.n., M) to P. serpens (G.Forst.) Ching. In addition, there are in the Kew herbarium, two sheets labelled as from Norfolk Is. (both of which appear to be part of the same collection; 1849, coll. C.J.Simmons, s. loc.) one of which has been determined by Hovenkamp as P. confluens and the other as P. serpens. However, observations of plants on the Island lead to the conclusion that there is only one species present there, and arouses the suspicion that the distinctness of these three taxa needs reconsideration.
Frequently, on Norfolk Is., this fern produces bands of fasciated branched rhizomes. Their cause is not known, although it has been suggested that it might be due to attack by gall-forming mites (Hovenkamp, op. cit. 178).
M.D.TindaleNational Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries Rd, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000
PhymatosorusPic.Serm. Webbia 28: 457(1973) from the Greek phymatos (a swelling) and sorus, because of the pustulate swelling of upper surface of the lamina above the sorus in most of the species in this genus
Type: P. scolopendria (Burm.f.) Pic.Serm.
Scrambling, creeping or climbing epiphytes or lithophytes. Rhizomes often thick; scales peltate, clathrate. Stipes remote, articulate with rhizome; lamina usually simple or pinnatisect, thickened at margin, glabrous; veins distinctly anastomosing, with free, included veinlets. Sori round or elliptic, in 1 (or 2) rows on each side of midrib, ±sunk in the lamina, resulting in protuberances on upper surface.
A genus of c. 12 species from Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, to warm temperate Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands; 1 species native to Norfolk Is., 2 species native to Lord Howe Is. (1 subspecies endemic).
Scales on rhizomes ±appressed; rhizome fleshy, 3–10 mm diam.; base of lamina shortly decurrent onto stipe; lobes of lamina 0.7–2 cm broad; sori near middle of lamina (N.Is., L.H.Is.)
1. P. pustulatus
Scales on rhizome squarrose; rhizome slender, 2–7 mm diam.; base of lamina long-decurrent onto stipe; lobes of lamina 0.4–1 cm broad; sori submarginal (L.H.Is.)
2. P. scandens
pustulatus(G.Forst.) M.F.Large, J.E.Braggins & P.S.Green New Zealand J. Bot. 30: 207(1992), as P. pustulatum
Polypodium pustulatum G.Forst., Fl. Ins. Austr. 81 (1786).T: New Zealand, J.R. & G.Forster; lecto: BM, fide M.F.Large et al., Kew Bull. 47: 126 (1992). The epithet is Latin for having pustules, in reference to the lamina appearing blistered due to the slightly sunken sori.
Epiphytic, lithophytic or terrestrial ferns, climbing or creeping. Rhizome fleshy, 3–10 mm diam., with appressed brown scales. Fronds variously dissected; stipe 1.5–30 cm long, glabrous except at articulated base; lamina shortly decurrent onto stipe, simple, trisect or pinnatisect, glabrous or occasionally with scattered small, clathrate scales; veins reticulate, linked to a wavy submarginal vein; lobes of lamina 2–14, 0.7–2 cm broad, on each side of broadly winged rachis; sori remote from margin of lamina, ±sunken.
Two subspecies are recognised.
Sori median on the lamina, rarely deeply sunken in lamina; scales of rhizome 1–2 mm broad; frond 3-lobed or pinnatisect, rarely 2-pinnate, often simple
1a. subsp. pustulatus
Sori submarginal or about 1/3 of the way from the margin to the midrib, rarely median, deeply sunken in lamina; scales of rhizome 1.5–3.3 mm broad; fronds mostly pinnatisect, sometimes 3-lobed (rarely simple)
Illustrations: B.D.Duncan & G.Isaac, Ferns & Allied Pl. Victoria, Tasmania & S. Australia 155, fig. 15.1A, 156, figs 15.2A, 15.3 (1986), as Microsorum diversifolium; S.B.Andrews, Ferns Queensland 282, fig. 28.4D (1990); P.G.Wilson in G.J.Harden, Fl. New South Wales 1: 41 (1990), as Microsorum diversifolium.
Epiphytic or lithophytic, sometimes terrestrial fern, climbing. Rhizome 3–7 mm diam.; scales 3–6 mm long, 1–2 mm broad, attenuate, slenderly acuminate, eventually deciduous. Fronds: stipe 1.5–30 cm long; lamina 10–40 cm long, simple (narrowly elliptic), trisect or pinnatisect; lobes 2–10, 3–15 cm long, 0.7–2 cm broad, occasionally with scattered, small, clathrate, peltate scales, acute. Sori slightly sunken, ovoid, 1.5–4 mm diam., about midway between margin and midrib.
Norfolk Is. Also known from eastern Australia (southern Qld to Tas.) and New Zealand.