Blechnum howeanum T.C.Chambers & P.A.Farrant APNI*
Description: Terrestrial fern. Rhizome creeping or shortly erect; apical scales dense, to 2.5 cm long, reddish-brown, acuminate.
Fronds dimorphic; stipe to 45 cm long, scaly; scales with a basal black spot, dense and similar to those on rhizome for c. 8 cm from base, diminishing in size and density up stipe. Lamina of sterile fronds pinnate, linear to lanceolate or deltoid in outline, to 70 cm long, to 40 cm broad, with a few, scattered narrow scales; pinnae 24 pairs, often overlapping, narrowly lanceolate, 15–20 cm long, 2–2.5 cm broad, auriculate-hastate, serrulate-crenulate, long-acuminate; veins numerous and unbranched; basal pinnae reduced to auricles. Lamina of fertile fronds pinnate; pinnae narrowly linear, to 20 cm long, auriculate with auricles diminishing in size up the rachis, finely laciniate.
Distribution and occurrence: Lord Howe Is. Endemic.
Grows in shaded montane forest, especially on the summits of Mts Gower and Lidgbird.
NSW subdivisions: LHI
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