Ctenopterella blechnoides

Polypodiaceae

Ctenopterella blechnoides (Grev.) Parris

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/215165

Rhizome dorsiventral, producing fronds in 2 rows. Lamina 15 or more cm long, c. 21 mm wide; pinnae in 48 or more pairs; longest pinnae c. 11 mm long and 2 mm wide, apically obtuse, coriaceous; margins entire; hairs dark red-brown, simple, eglandular, abaxially on lamina in and around sori and forked hairs with dark red-brown branches abaxially on rachis and pinna midvein, both surfaces of lamina and adaxially on rachis adjacent to pinna sinuses and abaxially on pinna midvein; hairs 0.2–0.4 mm long. Sori on 32 or more pairs of pinnae. 

One record from the McIlwraith Range, QLD Australia. Also in Asia, Malesia and Pacific Islands.

Poorly known. Probably lithophytic in rainforest.

This species is known from a single collection. Most records of this species in QLD refer to Ctenopteris gordonii.

Ctenopterella blechnoides has branched and simple hairs on the abaxial surface of the lamina, differing from C. gordonii which only has simple hairs on the abaxial surface of the lamina.