Fronds distant along rhizome, erect to drooping, glossy, leathery, variable in size and shape, 25–100 cm long. Stipe long, deeply grooved, with papery, brown scales. Lamina 2–3-pinnate, narrowly to broadly triangular, dark green, glabrous; rachises grooved, with raised centre and prominent lateral ridges, scaly. Primary pinnae stalked and distant; pinnules decurrent, oblong-lanceolate, bluntly toothed or lobed. Sori numerous, slightly sunken, in 2 rows midway between margin and midrib; indusium round and membranous, centre dark, with central stalk; spores blackish.
VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, HFE, VAlp. Also Qld, NSW, Tas. (including Bass Strait islands). New Zealand, South Africa, Central and South America. Occurs in wet shaded forest and in deep fern gullies as an epiphyte (often on Dicksonia antarctica), scrambling on logs and rocks, or occasionally, on forest floor.
Source:
Entwisle, T.J. (1994). Ferns and allied plants (Psilophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Polypodiophyta). In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 13–111. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
