Common name: Venus-hair Fern
Adiantum capillus-veneris L. APNI* Synonyms: Adiantum capillis-veneris APNI*
Description: Rhizome short-creeping, suberect, branched, to 5 mm diam.; scales concolorous, yellow-brown, with entire margins.
Fronds tufted, to 36 cm long. Stipe to 18 cm long, glossy, glabrous, brittle. Lamina 2–3-pinnate, triangular, 5–20 cm long, 4–15 cm wide, delicate, membranous. Pinnae rectangular or elliptic; rachis flexuose, wiry. Pinnules ovate to triangular, shortly stalked throughout, symmetric and cuneate-flabellate or subdimidiate, glabrous; distal margins irregularly and deeply lobed, denticulate when sterile; stalks not articulated; veins red-brown near junction with stalk, otherwise pale.
Sori 1–10 along distal margins, 1 or 2 per lobe; soral flaps oblong to subreniform, not or scarcely indented into the lamina margin, glabrous. Spores 64 per sporangium, pale brown; perine scabrous; largest diam. (43–) 48.1 (–60) µm
Distribution and occurrence: All states except Tasmania and Northern Territory, but nowhere common. usually occurs as predominantly lithophytic populations on limestone or sandstone, or terrestrial on alkaline soils.
NSW subdivisions: SC
Text by Peter Bostock, in Flora of Australia Volume 48. Added by Matt A.M. Renner (4 May 2020).
Taxon concept: Bostock (1998) Adiantaceae in Flora of Australia Volume 48: Ferns, Gymnosperms and Allied Groups. Melbourne : ABRS/CSIRO Australia
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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