Flora of New Zealand Series

Allantodia australis R. Br. Prodr. 1810,

Polypodium umbrosum Ait. Hort. Kew. 3, 1789, 466 pro parte.

Asplenium brownianum J. Smith Gen. Fil. et Bot. Mag. Suppl. V. 72. p. 30 (fide Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 2, 1855, 36).

Rhizome stout, ascending, branched, clad in dark brown ovate, acute paleae c. 5 mm. long; stipites tufted. Stipes stout, pale to greenish brown, smooth, paleate in darker lower portion; 20-60 cm. × up to 5 mm. diam. Rhachis stout, nude, ± flexuous, pale brown to stramineous, with numerous distant alt. to subopp. pinnae. Lamina pale to rather dark green, 3-12 × 2-9 dm., membr., broadly deltoid-ovate, 2-(3)-pinnate; veins free. Primary pinnae 15-40-(50) × 10-20 cm.; ovate-to lanceolate-oblong, acuminate to acute; costa stout in lower portion. Secondary pinnae up to 5 × 2 cm., about lanceolate; deeply pinnatifid to pinnatisect. Segs up to 15 × 5 mm., oblong to lanceolate-oblong, acute, subfalcate, crenate-dentate, teeth apiculate. Sori numerous, in irregular pairs oblique to midvein, oblong, up to 8 per pinnule, 2-3 mm. long. Indusium inflated, membr., curved.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland forests from lat. 35º to 43º, rather local. Also in Tasmania, Australia, New Caledonia.

Cunningham in Compan. bot. Mag. 2, 1837, 364, refers specimens from "Humid woods on the shores of the Bay of Islands - 1821, A. Cunningham. - 1834, R. Cunningham" to Allantodia tenera R. Br. Prodr. 1810, 149. Brown draws the distinctions: A. australis - " pinnulis apice attenuatis, lobis . . . inciso-serratis multifloris, involucris oblongis." A. tenera - " lobis . . . serratis basi floriferis, soris linearibus."

Kirk in T.N.Z.I. 23, 1891, 425, describes his Asplenium umbrosum var. tenuifolium : "Rhizome creeping, more slender than in the type. Fronds erect or sub-erect, 12 in. to 16 in. high, oblong, oblong-acuminate or deltoid, twice-pinnate at the base, pinnatifid above; pinnules flat or convex, minutely or coarsely serrate. Rhachis extremely slender, filiform above, more or less clothed with scattered membranous scales. Hab. South Island, Takaka Valley, Nelson. J. McKerrow Campbell." Cheeseman (Man. N.Z.Fl. 1925, 44) thinks it may belong to A. japonicum.