English: Kangaroo paw fern; Hound’s tongue fern.
Synonyms: Microsorum pustulatum; Phymatodes diversifolium; Phymatosorus pustulatum; Polypodium billardieri; Polypodium diversifolium;
Zealandia pustulata;
Phymatosorus diversifolius.
Clades:
Microsoroideae;
Polypodiales;
Polypodiidae;
Polypodianae;
Pteridophyta;
Plants;
Kingdoms.
Region: India, China, South east Asia.
Region: Australia , New Zealand.
Genus: 13 species.
Use: ornamental, as ground cover or in pots.
BotanyFern; epiphytic, lithophytic; footed.
Root: rhizome, creeping, dark green, branched, 2-3 cm thick, apex covered with brownish-black scales; scales 5 by 5 cm, peltate, rounded in outline, irregular along margins.
Stem: green foot with brownish hair; rhizomatous creeping and climbing branches; spreading, form a ground cover, 30 cm tall, up to 1 m wide; climbing up walls and tree trunks, cover rocky areas; drooping.
Leaves: ± 70 cm long, 30 cm wide; simple; stipe 30 cm long, ± 0.6 cm thick, polished; lamina ± 60 cm long, 30 cm wide, pinnatifid, dark green, coriaceous; rachis dark brownish; veins indistinct. Sori: circular; 2 to 4 mm in diameter; in distinct rows.
Sporangial capsule: 312.5 x 250 µm, ellipsoid, stalk 375 µm long, 3-seriate at apex, rest biseriate.
Sori: single row on frond undersides; slightly sunken.
Sporangial capsule: 312.5 x 250 µm, ellipsoid, stalk 375 µm long, 3-seriate at apex, rest biseriate.
Spores: 80 by 50 mm; planoconvex; exine granulose.