| Pteridophyte | Literature for Microsorum grossum
Nooteboom, 1997; Palmer, 2003; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Polypodiaceae | Bibliography |
| Microsorum grossum | |
Common name(s): laua`e, maile scented fern |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fiji, and eastwards throughout the South Pacific as far east as Pitcairn Island, extending westward through southern Asia to tropical Africa, but the distribution uncertain due to confusion with the closely-related M. scolopendria.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habitat | Low-elevation forests, especially in disturbed areas | |
| Elevation | 0-600 m |
|
| Habit |
Terrestrial, epipetric, or occasionally epiphytic. Rhizomes long-creeping, 5–7 mm in diameter, fleshy, green, scaly when young; scales scattered, ovate, 2.5–8 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, appressed or ± bullate, thin, pale brown to dark brown, clathrate, often opalescent, margins dentate, apex shortly acuminate. |
|
| Leaves |
Fronds to 190 cm long, spaced 1–6(–10) cm apart; stipe 8–90 cm long, pale, glossy, glabrous except for a few scales at the base; blade deeply pinnatifid, with 5–10(–15) lobes on a side and a similar apical one, rarely simple, pale green, thinly coriaceous, glabrous except for a few scattered scales on rachis and costae; lateral lobes strap-shaped, 3–23 cm long, 0.8–4(–5) cm wide, tapering to an acute or obtuse apex and usually narrowing a little towards base, margin entire or undulate, apical lobe often elongate, costae prominent, other veins obscure. |
|
| Sori |
Sori usually in 1 row on either side of costa, some sori occasionally in 2 rows, subcircular, 2–5mm in diameter, raised as bumps on adaxial surface of blade. |
|
| Contributor |
David Lorence |
