Flora of New Zealand Series

Polypodium (Grammitis) paradoxum Col. in T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 336.

G. australis var. villosa Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 2, 1855, 44.

Original localities: "On trunks of living trees, humid woods, Bay of Islands 1841. And in similar situations, shores of Waikare Lake." Type: W, "Shores of Waikare Lake, Dec. 1841." Sts rupestral. Endemic.

Rhizome short, bearing pale brown ovate acute paleae, c. 5 mm. long; stipites crowded. Stipes up to 1 cm. long, narrowly winged, margined by fine delicate rufous to pale hairs. Lamina 1-6 cm. × 2-4 mm., membr. to subcoriac., dull green, linear- to narrow-oblong, subacute, main vein evident, veinlets rather obscure, with delicate hairs on both surfaces, more plentiful on lower. Sori us. cop. in a row on each side of main vein, nearer to it than to margin, oblique, oblong, c. 2 mm. long, with cop. long delicate hairs.

DIST.: N., S., St. Distribution uncertain, but apparently not uncommon as a low epiphyte in lowland forest. Herbarium specimens are often unsatisfactory, as the characteristic hairs readily become detached.

Of his var. villosa Hooker merely says "frondibus pubescentibus hirsutisve" and gives no localities.

Colenso's paradoxum was described from specimens collected in "forests between head of Wairarapa Valley and Manawatu River, 1858, W.C." I have not located any Colenso specimen, but from the description it differs only in the more cop. hairs.