Family

Dennstaedtiaceae

Nomenclature

Microlepia strigosa (Thunb.) C.Presl, Epimel. Bot.: 95. 1851 [‘1849’]; Bedd., Handb. Ferns Brit. India: 67. 1883; Tardieu & C.Chr., Fl. Indo-Chine 7(2): 98. 1938; Holttum, Rev. Fl. Malaya ed. 1, 2: 310, f. 177. 1955 [‘1954’]; Holttum, Dansk Bot. Ark. 20: 24. 1961; Ching, Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 2: 222, pl. 17, f. 5–8. 1959; Tagawa & K.Iwats., SouthE. Asian Stud. 5: 72. 1967; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Fl. Thailand 3: 116, f. 8.2. 1979; Boonkerd & Pollawatn, Pterid. Thailand: 89. 2000. – Trichomanes strigosum Thunb., Fl. Jap.: 339. 1784.

Description

Rhizome long creeping, about 5 mm diam., densely covered with yellow brown setose hairs about 2 mm long. Stipes stramineous or brownish, densely pubescent especially in the grooves on upper surface or glabrescent in older ones, up to 40 cm long; lamina bipinnate, or tripinnatifid in larger fronds, 40–70 cm long, 25–35 cm wide, ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at apex; rachis like the upper part of stipes, distinctly grooved on upperside, the groove not joined to that of pinna-rachis, densely pubescent below; lateral pinnae sometimes more than 20 in pairs, a few lower ones a little reduced or not, the upper ones gradually reducing in size, the largest ones straight, ascending, distinctly stalked, linear-subtriangular, gradually narrowing towards long-caudate acuminate apex, cuneate at base, up to 20 cm long, 4 cm wide; the largest pinnules oblong to oblong-subdeltoid; oblique, moderately acute at apex, subtruncate anteriorly and very narrowly cuneate posteriorly at base, deeply lobed to pinnatisect, up to 2 cm long, 1 cm wide, sessile or petiolulate; ultimate lobes round to spatuliform, obscurely undulate at margin; veins pinnate, veinlets forked, distinct on undersurface of lobes, paler, hairy, softly chartaceous; deep green above, glabrous except on veins. Sori between the crenae of lobes, submarginal; indusia rather broadly cup-shaped, small, less than 1 mm broad, hairy .

Distribution in Thailand

NORTHERN: Chiang Mai, Lampang; EASTERN: Nakhon Ratchasima; SOUTH-WESTERN: Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan; PENINSULAR: Chumphon, Yala.

Wider Distribution

Himalayas to Sri Lanka and Polynesia, northwards to Japan.

Ecology

On mountain slopes usually in dense tropical evergreen forest at middle or higher altitudes.

Proposed IUCN Conservation Assessment

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