Flora of New Zealand Series

Woodwardia caudata Cav. Ic. Desc. Pl. 1801, n. 653.

AnD. squarrosa Col. in T.N.Z.I. 13, 1881, 382?

Rhizome ascending, clad in dark paleae, invested by bases of fallen tufted stipites. Stipes slender, smooth to asperous, 5-15 cm. long, blackish brown towards base, elsewhere brown. Rhachis smooth to asperous, slender, pale brown, with up to 30 subopp., rather distant pinnae. Lamina lanceolate to linear-oblong, caudate, membr. to subcoriac., rather pale green. Barren laminae c. 15. × 2-3-(8) cm., ± decumbent. Fertile laminae 20-40 × 3-5 cm., erect. Pinnae dentate-serrate. Pinnae of barren fronds: lower c. 10 × 5 mm., stalked, ovate, auriculately lobed at base: mid 10-15 cm. × 5-10 mm., oblong, stalked, auriculate or not: upper smaller, subsessile to sessile and decurrent: terminal seg. c. 5 × 1 cm., oblong. Pinnae of fertile laminae linear to linear-lanceolate, auriculate at base, up to 25 × 3 mm., in distant pairs. Terminal seg. linear, up to 15 cm. long. Sori in a single row, discrete to approximate or ± confluent, c. 2 mm. long.

DIST.: N. Open places from lat. 35º southwards, local, with discontinuous distribution. Also Australia.

Forms with laminae forked towards apices are met with, and also forms with the cauda once to several times forked. An apparently rare form has a pair of basal pinnae up to 8 cm. long, again pinnate. A range of forms is met with linking D. media to its var. milnei and also to D. caudata. A form of D. media with all the pinnae very narrow is sts referred to D. connexa. The whole complex needs further study. Carse (T.N.Z.I. 47, 1915, 81) remarks: "I think there is no doubt that the species pass into one another, if, indeed, they are not extreme forms of one species." Later (see Cockayne and Allan in Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 8) he concluded that part of the diversity was due to hybridism.