Dipteris conjugata Reinw.

 

Dipteris conjugata is a species of fern in the family Dipteridaceae. It has a rhizome, and 2-3 tall stems with mid green or dark green fronds, which have several divisions to toothed lobes. It is grows in clearings, mountain ridges and in forest margins, from tropical and temperate Asia, northern Queensland in Australia and some islands in the Pacific Ocean. It has limited native medicinal uses.

Description

It has a creeping rhizome covered with black shiny hairs or reddish brown hairlike scales. The hairs are 4 to 5 mm long and 0.2 mm in diam. The hairs are more like bristles on the older sections of the rhizomes. It is up to 1 cm or more in diameter.

The stipes (leaf stalks) are normally between 0.4–2.0 m (1 ft 4 in – 6 ft 7 in) long, but stipes up to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) have also been found. They have hair-like scales at base, which then becomes smooth and glabrous. They are straw coloured to brown.

The leaf stems appear at regular intervals along the rhizome. and branch three or four times. The rhizomes are usually terrestrial, but can also climb trees. The fronds are composed of two enormous leaflets, each up to 1 metre wide and broad.

The fronds are mid green to dark green on the upper surface, and paler or glaucous underneath. are between 0.5–0.7 m (1 ft 8 in – 2 ft 4 in) long and 0.5–0.7 m (1 ft 8 in – 2 ft 4 in) wide. They are divided to the base into two fan-shaped halves, which are further divided more than halfway into 4 or more unequal lobes, which are again lobed one or more times. The ultimate lobes taper to a narrow apex with the edges deeply or coarsely toothed. The main veins branch into two veins several times. The juvenile fronds are tomentose, i.e. with a layer of soft hairs.

On the lower surface of the fronds are numerous small sori which are irregularly scattered and of irregular size and shape. They do not have indusia (umbrella-like covers) and have paraphyses (filament-like support structures) which are club-shaped.

Dipteris conjugata - Wikipedia

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