Todea barbara

Osmundaceae

Todea barbara (L.) T.Moore

Link to Australian Plant Name Index for publication details and synonyms: https://id.biodiversity.org.au/name/apni/97157

Rhizome short or forming a trunk to 3 m tall, with a thick brown root mantle. Stipe smooth. Fronds lanceolate, 0.5–2.5 m long, 15–60 cm wide, occasionally as small as 10 cm long, 4 cm wide, 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, glabrous or pubescent along veins, shiny, pale green; adaxial surface paler. Pinnae 10–30 cm long, 2–12 cm wide, lanceolate, more rarely ovate to oblong in reduced forms; sporogenous pinnae occasionally shorter than sterile ones. Pinnules broadly attached at base, oblong-elliptic, 1.5–8 cm long, 4–9 mm wide; margins serrate. Sporangia at first in discrete groups, then confluent, green turning reddish brown. 

E Australia from Mt Windsor Tableland in NE QLD to Tasmania. Also New Zealand and Africa.

Terrestrial in wet sclerophyll forest, rainforest margins and along creeks.

Some populations in northern Queensland have been reduced by harvesting of trunks for Orchid culture.