Flora of New Zealand Series

Aspidium thelypteris var. squamigerum Schlecht. Adumb. Fil. Bonae Spei 1825, 23, t. 11.

Nephrodium squamulosum Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 2, 1855, 39.

AnPolypodium invisum Forst. f. Prodr. 1786, 81?

Rhizome far-creeping, branched, slender; stipites distributed along rhizome. Stipes slender, pale brown, glab. except for a few paleae at base, 10-30 cm. long. Rhachis and costae bearing on under surface pale ovate paleae c. 2 mm. long. Lamina pinnate, 15-30-(40) cm. × 5-10-(15) cm., oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, pale green, membr., subtruncate at base. Pinnae 3-8 cm. × c. 15 mm., subopp. to alt., patent, lanceolate-oblong, acute to acuminate, deeply pinnatifid to pinnatisect; upper pinnae somewhat ascending, lower much reduced. Segs of fertile pinnae linear-oblong, obtuse to subacute, up to 1 cm. long, but us. shorter, margins recurved. Veinlets all free, mostly forked. Segs of sterile pinnae broader, partly recurved. Sori close-set, hardly 1 mm. diam., often coalescing to form coenosori up to 5 mm. long. Indusium cordate-reniform, glandular-ciliate when young.

DIST.: N. Lowland marshy ground, local, from near North Cape to lat. 44º. Also in West and South Africa.

Forster's P. invisum, only doubtfully from N.Z., is described thus: "frondibus pinnatis glabris: foliolis linearibus, acuminatissimis serrato-pinnatis: pinnis lanceolatis falcato-acutis, basi connatis."