Asplenium polyodon
G.Forst. Sickle SpleenwortRhizome short, stout, covered with brown scales. Fronds tufted, erect or pendent, 30–100 cm long, stiff. Stipe shorter than lamina, dark brown, grooved; scales similar to those of rhizome, numerous. Lamina narrowly elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 1-pinnate, dark green, glossy above, paler and dull beneath; rachis grooved, dark brown, with scattered scales. Pinnae narrowly triangular, often slightly curved, 3–15 cm long, tapering gradually from base to tip, thickened basal edge of primary pinnae decurrent on raised edge of rachis; margins doubly and often deeply toothed; veins prominent on undersurface, forked. Sori linear-oblong, on veins, curved away from midrib; indusium linear-oblong, membranous.
Qld, NSW. New Zealand, Asia, Pacific islands. Reported once in Victoria, from 3 km south-east of Genoa in 1940. The single plant discovered has since died and this species is presumed to be extinct in Victoria.
Species account taken mainly from Brownsey & Smith-Dodsworth (1989) and Wilson (1990). The once pinnate frond with doubly toothed, lanceolate, long-tapering pinnae is distinctive, as is its completely dark brown stipe and rachis.
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
