Flora of New Zealand Series

Polypodium penna-marina Poir. in Lam. Encyc. 5, 1804, 520.

Stegania alpina R. Br. Prodr. 1810, 152.

Lomaria alpina Spreng. Syst. Veg. 4, 1827, 62.

L. pumila Raoul in Ann. Sci. nat. Sér. 3, 2, 1844, 115.

L. linearis Col. in Tasm. J. nat. Sci. 2, 1846, 176.

Blechnum alpinum Mett. Fil. Hort. bot. lips. 1856, 64.

Lomaria penna-marina Trev. in Atti Ist. veneto 14, 1869, 570.

L. parvifolia Col. in T.N.Z.I. 20, 1888, 224.

L. distans Col. in T.N.Z.I. 28, 1896, 615.

Struthiopteris penna-marina (Poir.) Mason et Morton in Bull. Torrey bot. Cl. 66, 1939, 44.

Rhizome wiry, creeping, sparingly branched, up to 30 cm. or more long, and 3 mm. diam.; clad in pale brown to ferruginous ovate-acuminate paleae, c. 5 mm. long; stipites distributed, but often clustered. Stipes slender, shining, reddish brown, paleate to nude; of sterile frond procumbent to ascending, 2-15 cm. long; of fertile erect, 5-25 cm. long. Rhachis nude or nearly so, with numerous subopp. pinnae. Sterile lamina subcoriac. to submembr., green to bronze-green, linear to narrow-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, pinnate to pinnatifid, 5-15-(30) cm. × 10-15 mm. Pinnae close-set 3-5-(10) cm. × 2-5 mm., oblong to triangular, obtuse to subacute, crenulate. Fertile lamina 5-10 cm. × 6-10 mm.; pinnae narrow-linear to oblong, ± arcuate, distant, often with basal lobe. Sori covering whole of undersurface.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch., A., C., Ant., M. Lowland to subalpine grassland, open places and fellfield from lat. 37º southwards; sts ascends in dwarfed form to 2,000 m. or more in Southern Alps. Also S. America, Tasmania, Australia.

Raoul's L. pumila from "Akaroa in muscosis" appears to be a shade form. Colenso's L. linearis was based on plants from "margins of woods near Te Waiiti, Jan. 1842." The type consists of 4 portions of rhizome with numerous fronds. Sterile lamina linear-lanceolate, 7-12 cm. long; pinnae up to 5 mm. long, oblong to triangular, obtuse to acute. Fertile lamina linear to linear-lanceolate, 9-14 cm. long; pinnae up to 5 mm. long, oblong. Colenso's L. parvifolia from "High slopes of Tongariro Mountain Range, County of East Taupo; 1887: per Mr. H. Hill" (portion of type in A) is a slender form (only sterile fronds collected) with almost capillary stipes and pinnae c. 3 mm. long. L. distans Col. (not seen by me) from "Ruahine Mountain Range, east side: Mr. H. Hill; 1894:" is described as having "stipe and rhachis very slender, almost filiform . . . fertile fronds twice as long as barren . . . pinnae . . . 2 lines long . . . narrow deltoid-acuminate, falcate reversed, adnate and continuous produced upwards on rhachis (sursum currens)."