Pteris multifida Poiret

Spider brake, Spider fern, Chinese brake, Huguenot fern, Saw-leaved bracken

Etymology Multifida means divided many times.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping, densely scaly, scales dark reddish brown to chestnut brown.
Frond: 60 cm high by 25 cm wide, deciduous in colder areas, dimorphic, the sterile fronds leafier, blade/stipe ratio: 2:1.
Stipe: dark brown to straw-colored at the base, sparsely scaly at base, glabrous above, vascular bundles: 1.
Blade: 1-pinnate, irregularly ovate, papery, bright green, glabrous.
Pinnae: 3 to 7 pair, linear, lower pinnae pinnate, upper simple, adnate to the winged rachis, fertile pinnae contracted; margins fertile entire, sterile serrate; veins conspicuous, free, simple or once-forked.
Sori: continuous, submarginal, indusium: false, reflexed margin of pinnae stiff, pale brown, sporangia: yellowish brown.
Culture Habitat: terrestrial or on rock in disturbed areas in circumneutral soils. Distribution: Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, widely naturalized elsewhere. Hardy to -10°C, USDA Zone 7.
Distinctive Characteristics Differs from Pteris cretica particularly in having a winged rachis. Young plants can appear to be P. cretica.
Synonyms
Pycnodoria multifida (Poiret) Small
Pteris multifida
Pteris multifida.  Illustration by Edgar Paulton, from How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies, John T. Mickel, © 1979 Wm. C. Brown Co.
Pteris multifida
Pteris multifida habitat, Tanabe City.Wakayama Pref.,Japan.  keisotyo at commons.wikimedia.org
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