Pellaea falcata

Pteridaceae

Pellaea falcata (R.Br.) Fee

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/115236

Sickle Fern

Rhizome long-creeping; scales narrowly ovate, c. 1.5–2 mm long, basally attached, with a midrib of black occluded cells; margins entire, of paler brown open cells; apex attenuate and acute. Fronds 37–105 cm long. Stipe 10–25 cm long (20–30% length of frond), c. 5–10 mm apart, dark brown, ±cylindrical; stipe and rachis clothed with scales and uniseriate hairs; scales narrowly triangular, 3–4 mm long, spreading, persistent, mid- to dark brown. Lamina 1-pinnate, narrowly ovate, 18–67 cm long, with 27–65 (–95) sessile or shortly-stalked pinnae (stalk less than 2 mm long). Pinnae oblong to linear-oblong, 22–56 mm long, 5–12 mm wide, dark green above, pale green beneath, coriaceous, ±glabrous; base truncate to cordate; margins entire, sometimes minutely crenate or toothed towards apex; apex obtuse or acute; veins free, forked, obscure. Sporangia in a continuous, marginal band c. 1 mm wide, absent from base and sometimes from apex; indusium marginal, membranous, obscured by sporangia at maturity. Spores trilete, ±globose, coarsely echinate. 

Temperate and subtropical Australia, Polynesia and New Zealand. Reports of this taxon in tropical Queensland probably refer to large forms of Pellaea nana.

Terrestrial or lithophytic in temperate or subtropical rainforest or tall wet sclerophyll forest.

Easily cultivated in a small container or among rocks in the garden.

Pellaea nana, Pellaea paradoxa and Pellaea calidirupium

1a. rachis scales and hairs mid- to dark-brown, spreading = 2

1b. rachis scales and whitish to pale-brown appressed = 3

2a. rachis scales mostly 3–4 mm long, pinnae 22–56 mm long = Pellaea falcata

2b. rachis scales mostly 1–2.5 mm long, pinnae 5–25 mm long = Pellaea nana

3a. pinnae 20–60 mm long; all lateral pinnae the same length = Pellaea paradoxa

3b. pinnae 14–30 mm long; lateral pinnae reducing in length and width towards the frond apex = Pellaea calidirupium