Dennstaedtia davallioides
(R.Br.) T.Moore Lacy Ground-fernRhizome long-creeping, much-branched, 3–5 mm diam., covered with short, cinnamon-brown hairs. Fronds distant, erect but drooping near tips, soft, 60–150 cm long. Stipe long, stiff, smooth and shiny, red-brown (sometimes dark), deeply but narrowly grooved; a few hairs near base. Lamina 3–4-pinnate, broad, somewhat triangular, mid- to dark green, delicate; hairs mostly along veins, short and colourless. Rachises mostly red-brown, shiny, narrowly grooved between prominent ridges; smaller rachises paler, with hairs on both surfaces (more numerous in grooves). Pinnae opposite to subopposite with lower primary pinna-pairs distant; pinnules markedly asymmetrical, decurrent (forming green wing along rachis), deeply and obliquely lobed; narrow lobules (or teeth) each having single vein. Sori as described above; cup-shaped indusial structure obvious when sorus mature.
GipP, OtP, EGL, EGU, HSF, OtR, Strz, HFE. Also Qld, NSW, Norfolk Is. Found in East Gippsland, Otway Range and at one isolated locality near Marysville north-east of Melbourne. Although uncommon, it can form extensive colonies near streams and in humid gullies.
See taxonomic notes under Calochlaena dubia (Dicksoniaceae).
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.
Spinning
