Microsorum pustulatum – Kangaroo or Hound’s tongue fern .
Family Polypodiaceae.
Synonyms include Microsorum diversifolium, Polypodium pustulatum and Polypodium diversifolium.
One subspecies – Microsorum pustulatum subsp. pustulatum.
An epiphytic fern on rocks and trees, native to Australia and widespread in S.E. Queensland.
The long, fleshy, creeping rhizomes have brown or blackish scales up to 7 mm long.
Leathery fronds are a bright, glossy green with differently shaped juvenile and mature fronds.
Juvenile fronds, up to about 30 cm high, are strap-like and undivided.
Mature fronds are up to 50 cm long by 15 cm wide and deeply but incompletely divided into lobes – pinnatifid.
Fronds have 3 to 12 pairs of lateral lobes and often a long terminal one.
The edges may be wavy and there are scattered scales on the midribs.
Lateral veins are prominent and there are pores at the ends of some veins.
Sori are in 1 row on either side of the midrib between each pair of lateral veins.
They are up to 2 mm across, typically round and slightly sunken causing corresponding
bumps on the upper surface.
J.F.
