Family

Polypodiaceae

Nomenclature

Phymatosorus scolopendria (Burm.f) Pic.Serm., Webbia 28: 460. 1973; Boonkerd & Pollawatn, Pterid. Thailand: 282. 2000. – Polypodium scolopendria Burm.f., Fl. Indica: 232. 1769. – Polypodium phymatodes L., Mant. Pl. Altera: 306. 1771, nom. illeg. – Pleopeltis phymatodes (L.) T.Moore, Index Fil.: lxxviii. 1857, nom. illeg.; Bedd., Handb. Ferns Brit. India: 366. 1883; E.Smith, J. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl. 8: 6. 1929. – Microsorum scolopendria (Burm.f.) Copel., Occas. Pap. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Mus. 14: 112. 1929; Tagawa & K.Iwats., SouthE. Asian Stud. 3(3): 77. 1965; Tagawa & K.Iwats., SouthE. Asian Stud. 5: 54. 1967; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Acta Phytotax Geobot. 23: 53. 1968; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Fl. Thailand 3: 533. 1989; Nooteboom, Blumea 42: 361. 1997; Bosman et al., Fl. Males., Ser. II, Ferns and Fern Allies 3: 127. 1998. – Phymatodes scolopendria (Burm.f.) Ching, Contr. Inst. Bot. Natl. Acad. Peiping 2: 63. 1933; Tardieu & C.Chr., Fl. Indo-Chine 7(2): 473. 1941; Holttum, Rev. Fl. Malaya ed. 1, 2: 191, f. 94. 1955 [‘1954’]; Seidenf., Nat. Hist. Bull. Siam Soc. 19: 86. 1958. – Type: Herb. Hermann, Ceylon.

Description

Rhizome long creeping, glaucous or not, about 5 mm diam., bearing fronds more than 1 cm apart, scaly; scales rather small, gradually narrowing from base towards long-acuminate apex, up to 3 by 0.7 mm, dark brown, clathrate, hairy at margin. Stipes up to 50 cm long, stramineous to pale castaneous. Laminae oblong-ovate to subdeltoid, simple or pinnatifid with broadly winged rachis, up to 40 by 35 cm; lateral lobes up to 6 pairs, the basal one the longest, up to 20 by 3 cm in fertile and 5 cm broad in sterile ones, gradually narrowing towards apex, entire at margin, the upper ones gradually becoming smaller, the wings of rachis about the same as the pinnae in breadth; costae raised on both surfaces, veins hardly visible, anastomosing, with many included veinlets ending in raised points; coriaceous. Sori in two rather irregular rows at each side of midrib, round or elongate in deep hollows, about 3 mm in breadth, raised on upper surface.

Distribution in Thailand

CENTRAL: Bangkok; SOUTH-EASTERN: Prachin Buri, Chon Buri; PENINSULAR: Surat Thani, Phangnga, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat.

Distribution in Cambodia

Kampot.

Wider Distribution

Tropics of the Old World.

Ecology

On rather dry muddy rocks or terrestrial in light shade or in open places.

Proposed IUCN Conservation Assessment

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

Voucher specimens - Thailand

Middleton et al. 4374 & 5519, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Khao Luang National Park (E).