DRYOPTERIDACEAE

Shiny shield-fern

 

0.9m (90cm) long 

None 

Spores 

Fern; rhizome, tufted c. brown scales ; fronds, arching on stipes as long as frond dark green, shiny, usually bipinnatifid. 

Break O'Day; Burnie; Central Coast; Derwent Valley; Glamorgan-Spring Bay; Hobart; Huon Valley; Kentish; King Island; Kingborough; Launceston; Meander Valley; Tasman; Waratah-Wynyard; West Coast; West Tamar 

Fern Gullies; Rainforest; Wet Eucalypt Forest 

Not common but often locally abundant across northern Tasmania, scattered and coastal elsewhere. Grows typically under dark and sheltered conditions beside running water, from soil or rock in rainforest, wet sclerophyll forest and fern gullies from sea-level to 200m, rarely to 400m. 

Moist; Rocky; Shady 

 

Fertile; Well-drained 

Appears to have the greatest low-light tolerance for spore germination of all Tasmanian pteridophytes. Plants, sporelings and gametophytes have been observed in grottos and cave entrances in conditions almost too dark for the naked eye. Suitable below powerlines. 

Sori halfway between midvein and margin, indusium dark brown, kidney-shaped. spores are blackish and shed fairly quickly. brown sporangia remain on the fronds, giving false appearance of fertile material