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Australian ferns & fern allies |
Small, +/- erect epiphytes or subepiphytes, or on moss-covered rocks. Rhizome filiform, long-creeping with spaced fronds, lacking roots, densely covered with dark multicellular hairs. Fronds stipitate, the stipes winged, the lamina linear ovate or lanceolate, pinnately compound, with single-veined ultimate segments, the margins entire, the rachis winged, texture membranous, glabrous, submarginal or scattered false veins (striae) always present. Sporangia sessile, borne on an elongate columnar receptacle, terminal on the lamina segments or lobes and immersed in an obconic to tubular, winged involucre (indusium), the mouth strongly bivalved or rarely entire and expanded, the receptacle usualy exserted when mature; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete.
| 1a. | Fronds of normal size 3-10 cm tall, at least bipinnatifid | 2 |
| Dwarf forms, mostly digitate or pinnatifid | C. nymannii | |
| 2a. | Submarginal false veinlets continuous, other striae few or absent | C. bipunctatum |
| Submarginal veinlet interrupted, other striae present | 3 | |
| 3a. | Mouth of involucre bilabiate | 4 |
| Mouth of involucre widely dilated, not bilabiate | C. christii | |
| 4a. | Segments commonly 0.8-1.1 mm wide; lips not very fibrous | C. bilabiatum |
| Segments narrower; much fibre in lips | 5 | |
| 5a. | Lamina full of false veinlets | C. venulosa |
| Accessory striae comparatively few | C. brevipes |
Small to minute pendulous epiphytes. Rhizome filamentous, long-creeping with spaced fronds, bearing fine fibrous roots. Fronds stipitate, the stipes unwinged, slightly hairy, the lamina ovate, pinnately compound, the rachises usually winged, the ultimate segments single-veined, usually glaucous, margins entire with a 2-seriate submarginal strand, texture membranous, costae wide and thickened with scattered hairs. Sporangia sessile, borne on an elongate columnar receptacle, terminal on the basal acroscopic lobe of the pinnae, immersed in a +/- winged, tubular abconic involucre (indusium), the lip +/- entire, the receptacle exserted when mature; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete.
A single species in Papuasia...................................P. pallidum
Minute epiphytes or subepiphytes. Rhizome filamentous, long-creeping with spaced fronds, generally hairy, lacking roots, little differentiated from the stipes and rachis. Fronds stipitate, the stipes unwinged, sometimes +/- proliferous from the stipes and rachis, the lamina pinnate or flabellate, with +/- pedate veins, the margins moderately or deeply lobed, each lobe with a single vein, texture membranous. Sporangia sessile, borne on an elongate columnar receptacle, terminal on the lobes, immersed in a +/- winged, tubular obconic involucre (indusium), the mouth dilated and entire, the receptacle exserted when mature; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete.
| 1a. | Axes not at all proliferous | G. saxifragoides |
| Axes proliferous | 2 | |
| 2a. | Proliferations scanty | G. minutus |
| More conspicuously ramose | G. proliferus |
Small to minute, pendulous epiphytes. Rhizome filamentous, long-creeping with spaced fronds, bearing roots. Fronds stipitate, the stipes filiform, the lamina +/- orbicular, palmate, repeatedly dichotomous or forked, sometimes monopodial, with single-veined ultimate segments, the axes winged , membranous, mostly glabrous, margins entire, flat, sometimes ciliate. Sporangia sessile, borne on a short columnar receptacle, terminal on the lamina segments and immersed in an obconic, unwinged, sometimes bivalved, involucre (indusium), the receptacle shortly excerted; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete.
A single species in Papuasia.......................M. digitatum
Small to moderate-sized terrestrial ferns or spreading epiphytes. Rhizome thick and wiry, long-creeping with spaced fronds, bearing roots. Fronds stipitate, the stipes winged or not, the lamina linear oblong to ovate, simply pinnate with lobed margins to pinnately decompound, with single-veined ultimate segments, or the ultimate segments with several forked veins, the margins deeply to shallowly lobed, each vein branch ending in a lobe, the margins otherwise entire, the rachis sometimes winged, membranous, sometimes brittle; sometimes reduced fronds without lamina at the base of the stipes. Sporangia sessile, borne on an elongate columnar receptacle, terminal on the lamina segments or lobes and immersed in an obconic, winged, +/- entire-lipped, involucre (indusium), the receptacle exserted with mature; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete, globose.
| 1a. | Vertical climbers with simply pinnate fronds | V. auriculata |
| Terrestrial or climbing with decompound fronds | 2 | |
| 2a. | Vertical climbers with reduced abortive fronds at the base of the stipes | V. aphlebioides |
| Terrestrial without such reduced fronds | V. maxima |
Minute epiphytes or subepiphytes. Rhizome filiform, long-creeping with spaced fronds, lacking roots, densely covered with dark multicellular hairs. Fronds stipitate, the stipes winged, the lamina ovate or lanceolate, bi- or subtripinnatifid with free-veined ultimate segments and a winged rachis, margins entire with 1-2 rows of elongate, variously thickened marginal cells, texture membranous, glabrous. Sporangia sessile, borne on an elongate columnar receptacle, terminal on the basal acroscopic lobe of each pinna, immersed in a winged tubular involucre (indusium), the lip expanded, the receptacle exserted when mature; paraphyses lacking, annulus complete, oblique. Spores trilete.
| 1a. | Marginal elongate cells in a single row | R. endlicheriana |
| Marginal elongate cells in a double row | R. humilis |
