Flora of New Zealand Series

P. affinis A. Rich. Essai Fl. N.Z. 1832, 81.

P. kingiana Endl. Prodr. Fl. norf. 1833, 13.

P. tenuis A. Cunn. in Compan. bot. Mag. 2, 1837, 365.

Rhizome short, erect, clad in dark brown linear-attenuate paleae; stipites tufted. Stipes (5)-30-60 cm. × c. 1-2 mm., dark brown and paleate near base, stiff, erect, smooth, shining and light brown above. Rhachis glabrate, with rather distant subopp. to alt. pinnae. Lamina (8)-30-90 cm. or more × (4)-30-60 cm. or more, ovate-deltoid, bright green, membr., 2-4-pinnate. Veins all free, mostly forked. Primary pinnae (5)-20-40 × 2-15 cm., subopp. to alt., shortly stalked, ovate-deltoid to ovate to lanceolate, acute to acuminate. Secondary pinnae up to 15 × 5 cm., subsessile, ovate to oblong, shallowly crenate-serrate on upper margin. Tertiary pinnae or segs 15-40 × 3-6 mm., crenately toothed, sessile, decurrent, oblong, obtuse. Fertile pinnae with segs up to 25 × 4 mm., lobed to entire. Sori cop., continuous along margins, often to tip and base.

DIST.: K., Three Kings, N., S. Lowland to montane forest and shaded places to lat. 42º. Local in S.: also occurs on Banks Peninsula (see Martin in T.N.Z.I. 52, 1920, 319). Also in Tasmania, Australia, Norfolk Id, Lord Howe Id, Fiji.

A complexity of forms is at present included under P. tremula. Large forms are attributed to P. kingiana, narrow-fronded forms to P. tenuis. Cunningham (loc. cit.) based his sp. on specimens from "Dry wooded hills on the shores of Wangaroa Harbour." Richard's P. affinis is described as having "foliolis linearibus integris subobtusis, infimis basi-pinnatifidis; terminali cacteris haudlongiori".