Flora of New Zealand Series

Polypodium pennigerum Forst. f. Prodr. 1786, 82.

Nephrodium pennigerum Presl Rel. Haenk. 1825, 35.

Goniopteris pennigera J. Smith in J. Bot. 4, 1841, 54

Dryopteris pennigera (Forst. f.) C. Christen. Ind. Fil. 1905, 223.

Cyclosorus pennigerus [sic] (Forst. f.) Cop. Gen. Fil. 1947, 143.

Rhizome erect, short or forming a caudex up to 6 dm. or more long, invested with rootlets and bases of stipites, up to 10 cm. diam. Stipe up to 5 dm. × 1 cm., subsucculent, deeply grooved, dark brown to almost black, bearing ovate-lanceolate brown paleae near base. Lamina up to 15 dm. long; rhachis with ∞ subopp, membr. to subcoriac., dark to light green pinnae; rhachis somewhat pubescent near groove when young, with or without a few paleae. Pinnae rather distant; lowest pair reduced to c. 2 cm. long, often irregularly lobulate; mid-pinnae up to 20 × 3 cm., oblong, acute to acuminate, deeply pinnatifid; segs (lowest of larger pinnae sometimes up to 5 cm. long, lobed) oblong, subfalcate, obtuse, up to 2 cm. × 6 mm.; margins subcrenate to nearly entire, slightly waved. Lateral veinlets of segs simple or forked towards tips; lowest uniting at or below the narrow sinus. Sori us. very cop., not coalescing, one per lateral vein of seg., in a row on each side of and near the mid-veinlet, c. 1 mm. diam., in up to 10 pairs.

DIST.: N., S., Ch. Common by streamsides in lowland forest throughout. Said also to occur in Polynesia.

There is a considerable range of forms, not yet very clearly differentiated. Forster's description is: "frondibus pinnatis glabris; foliolis linearibus acuminatissimis sub-pinnatis: pinnis ovato-oblongis obtusis connatis."

Colenso's Polypodium (?Goniopteris) pennigerum Forst. f. var. hamiltonii in T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 338, was described from specimens collected on "wet rocky sides of mountain streamlets, country S.W. from Napier, North Island; found by Mr. A. Hamilton in 1881". The type specimen (W, Kereru, A. Hamilton) is a single frond 97 cm. long, including stipes of 16 cm. × 3 mm. Stipes grooved and ridged, clad towards base in brown paleae. Lowest pinnae c. 1 cm. long, deeply pinnatifid; mid-pinnae up to 9 cm. long, again pinnatisect to pinnate. Pinnules up to 15 × 5 mm., oblong, acute to obtuse, sharply to bluntly toothed; sinus wide. Sori irregularly placed, us. about 1/2 way to margin; up to 7 pairs, us. fewer. Veinlets not meeting at or below sinus. Colenso gives the frond length as 15 to 18 inches. Other "crested" forms have been found, the status remaining uncertain.

P. (Goniopteris) pennigerum Forst. f. var. giganteum Col. T.N.Z.I. 14. 1882, 339 was based on specimens collected on "skirts of woods and thickets, head of River Manawatu; 1875-1881." In the Colenso herbarium (W) I find only a sheet with a short portion of the stipes and the lowest pair of pinnae, and two pinnae (one damaged) 19 × 4 cm., segs up to 15 × 5 mm., veinlets meeting at sinus, sori nearer costule than margin. The fronds are given as "5-6 feet long, 14-16 inches wide". Colenso says "the common form is also plentiful in the same localities".

Forms without a well-developed caudex (possibly Colenso's "common form") are common enough and us. with cop. sori. Fronds ∞, seldom as much as 1 m. long; stipes c. 5 mm. diam., paleae ∞; pinnae rather closer, up to 15 cm. × 25 mm.; segs except basal pair seldom over 1 cm. long; sori us. not more than 5 pairs. Carse (T.N.Z.I. 47, 1915, 92) drew attention to northern forms with accessory pinnules at the base of the pinnae "one on the upper and one on the lower side, the upper one being about 2 in. and the lower 1 in. long".

P. (Goniopteris) subsimilis Col. in T.N.Z.I. 20, 1888, 233, was described from specimens collected on "sides of streams, forests near Matamau, County of Waipawa; 1882-1883: W.C." The type specimen (W) is a single frond. Stipes 9 cm. × 2 mm., with ∞ brown ovate-attenuate paleae 3-7 mm. long. Lamina 32 cm. long. Lowest pinnae 25 × 10 mm.; segs obtuse sinus at about ⅓ way to costule. Largest pinna 45 × 7 mm., pinnatifid to ⅓ way; segs 3 mm. long, triangular, obtuse, subfalcate. Sori up to 7 pairs per seg., about medial. Colenso describes the caudex as "erect, 1 foot to 1 foot 6 inches high, rather slender," the "fronds 10-12 (rarely 16) inches long, 4 inches broad at middle". He gives the rhachis as "very hairy (also sub-rhachises, costae, and veins): hairs short, with scattered broadly-ovate adpressed brown scales on rhachis, sub-rhachises, and veins below". The hairs and paleae are not clearly seen on the type specimen. The plant remains of uncertain status, but the name is not correctly placed, as by Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 36), as an absolute synonym of D. pennigera.