Flora of New Zealand Series

G. dicarpa R. Br. Prodr. 1810, 161.

Rhizome slender, wiry ± clad in chaffy scales. Stipes 2-3 mm. diam., up to 30 cm. or more long, stiff, often hispidulous by stiff scales, becoming glab. Branches us. densely clad in pale to dark brown hairs and fimbriate scales. Pinnae 2-5 cm. long, narrow-linear. Pinnules 20-50, close-set, coriac., cucullate, suborbicular, c. 1 mm. diam., densely hairy to glabrate below. Sporangia 1-2 or rarely 3 per sorus, dull, white to yellowish-white. The pinnules of shaded pinnae often flattening.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch. Lowland to subalpine heaths and boggy ground. Also in Australia, New Caledonia, Malaya.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 85) recognizes two vars, but the complex has not been sufficiently analysed.

(a)  var. hecistophylla Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 348. G. hecistophylla A. Cunn. in Compan. bot. Mag. 1837, 361. G. semi-vestita var. hecistophylla Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 2, 1855, 5. Cunningham describes the pinnules of his sp. as fornicate below and the stipites and rhachides as provided above with woolly squamae. Hooker describes the pinnules as strongly concave, the rhachis sometimes woolly. Cheeseman says: "Stipes and rachis densely woolly and scaly. Segments strongly incurved beneath, sometimes as much as in the typical form, but variable in this respect". Cunningham's plants were collected "In open clay-lands and in swampy grounds on the shores of the Bay of Islands". The sporangia appear to be always white, darkening with age.

DIST.: N. Lowland heaths and boggy ground from near North Cape to lat. 38º or perhaps further.

(b)  var. alpina (Hook. f.) Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 1019. G. alpina R. Br. Prodr. 1810, 161. G. dicarpa var. alpina Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. 2, 1858, 131.

Plant hardly reaching more than 3 dm. high, with small fronds; stipes slender, becoming glab.; rhachides and pinnules below densely clad in reddish-brown hairs mingled with scales. Sporangia yellowish to brown.

DIST.: N., S., St. Montane to subalpine bogs. Also in Tasmania.

How far forms placed under this varietal name belong to a "good" varietas and how far they are reduced habitat forms remains uncertain. There is a range from plants densely clad in hairs and scales to plants almost glab.

Carse (T.N.Z.I. 56, 1926, 83) points out the characters distinguishing G. circinata from G. microphylla. He remarks: "G. circinata var. hecistophylla differs from the type in being smaller and more densely woolly. This seems to me the result of environment, as the variety is found in cold, sour land, exposed to sun and wind. The form known as var. alpina seems to pass by gradual steps from var. hecistophylla, some of the subalpine forms of which it is almost impossible to distinguish from alpina.

Cockayne (T.N.Z.I. 44, 1912, 14) goes so far as to say: "G. dicarpa R. Br. and G. circinata Sw. (Filic.) differ specifically in the former having the margins of the segments of the pinnae incurved so as to be pouch-shaped, whereas those of the latter are virtually flat. But the same individual of the  var. hecistophylla Hook. f. will possess some pinnae with pouches and others quite flat, in accordance with the degree of illumination to which they are exposed. In fact, here the specific distinction does not hold ─ it is merely epharmonic ─ and the latest name must be abandoned; nor can the two 'species' be maintained even as 'varieties'." This is to ignore the sporangial characters and the constant differences in pinnule-shape.