Description: Terrestrial plants, reproducing vegetatively by stolons. Rhizome black, short-creeping with an erect, tufted portion covered with small, dark scales and bearing numerous wiry roots.
Fronds 1-pinnatisect or 1-pinnate, all alike or dimorphic, fertile fronds usually erect with narrower, more widely spaced pinnae than the often prostrate sterile fronds; stipe robust, scaly at least at the base; lamina scabrous, ± membranous to leathery, the segments often with a prickly, toothed margin; veins mostly anastomosing, at least in the fertile fronds.
Sori discrete but often becoming confluent, in 2–4 rows parallel with the main vein of the segment; indusium present, opening towards the vein.
Distribution and occurrence: World: > 30 species, Asia to Australasia & Hawaiian Is. Australia: 8 species (4 endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas., S.A.
Doodia was synonymised with Blechnum by Christenhusz et al. (2011) to preserve a broadly circumscribed Blechnum.
Text by Peter G. Wilson
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Fronds 1-pinnatisect for most of their length, most segments attached by a broadened to decurrent base | 2 |
| Fronds with more than 1 pair of pinnae free, sessile to shortly stalked | 3 |
| 2 | Sori in one row on each side of the vein and located very close to it, usually 2–3 mm long | 5 |
| Sori in 1 or 2 rows on each side of the midvein and distinctly separated from it, ± circular, 0.5–1.5 mm long, sometimes becoming confluent with age
Back to 1 | Doodia aspera |
| 3 | Fronds not markedly dimorphic, harsh, ± leathery | Doodia australis |
| Fronds usually dimorphic, almost membranous to ± leathery
Back to 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Fronds pinnately divided for most of their length, but often with an apical pinna half to two-thirds the length of the lamina; various habits from creek banks in rainforest to open rocky areas | Doodia caudata |
| Fronds undivided for half to two thirds of their length, with a few pairs of short, broad pinnae at the base; protected sites in rainforest and open forest
Back to 3 | Doodia linearis |
| 5 | Rhizome erect, forming caudex up to 30 cm tall, tubercles present on stipe | Doodia maxima |
| Rhizome short creeping (but may develop an erect caudex) to 1.5 cm diameter and 16 cm long, stipe glabrous and smooth, without tubercles
Back to 2 | Doodia hindii |
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