Family

Dennstaedtiaceae

Nomenclature

Microlepia ridleyi Copel., Philipp. J. Sci., Sect. C, Botany 11: 39. 1916; Holttum, Rev. Fl. Malaya ed. 1, 2: 313, f. 180. 1955 [‘1954’]; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Acta Phytotax. Geobot. 23: 54. 1968; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Fl. Thailand 3: 123. 1979; Boonkerd & Pollawatn, Pterid. Thailand: 88. 2000.

Description

Rhizome thick, up to 1 cm diam., short creeping, hairy. Stipes up to 50 cm or more long, thick at base, minutely hairy, more or less puberulous with bases of fallen hairs; laminae large, subtriangular in outline, bipinnate-tripinnatifid, up to 70 cm long, 60 cm wide or larger; lowest pinnae the largest, narrowly oblong-subdeltoid, up to 40 cm long, 12 cm wide, distinctly stalked, the upper ones gradually becoming smaller; rachis and costae grooved, minutely hairy, costae very narrowly winged or wingless, veins not distinctly raised, dark, minutely pubescent or glabrescent; larger pinnules lobed to 4/5 way towards costules, stalked, narrowly cuneate basiscopically at base, long acuminate at apex, up to 9 cm long, 2 cm wide (except for the auricled base); lobes round at apex, entire or minutely serrate, up to 6 mm broad; herbaceous or firmer, glabrous or very sparsely pubescent. Sori at end of the acroscopic veinlets of the vein group, near margin or a little inside, small, about 1 mm wide; indusia hairy .

Distribution in Thailand

PENINSULAR: Yala.

Wider Distribution

Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.

Ecology

Terrestrial in humus rich ground near streams in lowland tropical evergreen forest.

Proposed IUCN Conservation Assessment

Least Concern (LC). This species is reasonably widespread outside of Thailand and not under any known threat.