Blechnum penna-marina subsp. alpina
(R.Br.) T.C.Chambers & P.A.FarrantRhizome creeping to semi-erect, slender to coarse, tough. Fronds separated or crowded, erect, slightly leathery, 10–30 cm tall; sterile and fertile fronds dissimilar; young fronds typically bronze-pink. Stipe moderately long, red-brown; scales near base broad and papery. Sterile frond lamina linear to narrowly lanceolate, once pinnate, dark green to bronze-green; rachis scales scattered and narrower than those of stipe; pinnae close-set, attached by wide bases, shortly oblong, less than 1 cm long, margins entire, apices blunt; lower pinnae separate, smaller, almost triangular; terminal pinnae short. Fertile fronds stiffly erect, taller and with longer stipe than sterile fronds; pinnae numerous, separated, short and curved upwards, relatively coarse. Sori covering underside of lamina on each side of midvein.
Wim, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, MonT, HFE, VAlp. NSW, ACT, Vic, Tas, MI. Almost exclusively alpine in Victoria, forming small colonies in exposed, flat and boggy areas (commonly growing through Sphagnum moss hummocks), near streams, rocky areas irrigated by melting snow, but also sometimes found in moist, shaded areas down to about the snowline.
Spinning
