Pellaea nana

Pellaea nana
At Mount Wilson rainforest, Blue Mountains National Park, Australia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Polypodiophyta
Class:	Polypodiopsida
Order:	Polypodiales
Family:	Pteridaceae
Genus:	Pellaea
Species:	P. nana
Binomial name
Pellaea nana (Hook.) Bostock
Synonyms [1]
Hemionitis nana(Hook.) Christenh. Pellaea falcata var. nanaHook. Platyloma falcatum var. nanum(Hook.) Bailey Pteris falcata var. nana(Hook.) Bailey

Pellaea nana, known as dwarf sickle fern, is a species of fern in the subfamily Cheilanthoideae of the family Pteridaceae. ^[2] It grows in eastern Australia, including Lord Howe Island, in rainforest or moist eucalyptus forest, often on rocks, cliffs and large boulders. The original specimen was collected by Allan Cunningham at the Brisbane River. In the state of Victoria, this plant is considered rare. ^[3] The specific epithet nana is derived from the Latin word nanus meaning dwarf.

The fronds are usually 20 to 50 cm long. Each frond has between 25 and 65 pinnae (leaflets), which have a short stalk or no stalk, and are oblong to narrow-oblong in shape. Each pinna is 25 mm long and 2.5 to 7 cm wide. The fronds are dark green, paler below. The sori are about 1 mm wide.

References

1. Hassler, Michael & Schmitt, Bernd (November 2019). "Pellaea nana". Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World. 8.11. Retrieved 2020-01-03.
2. Christenhusz et al., 2011 Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Xian-Chun Zhang & Herald Scheider: "A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns," Phytotaxa,19: 7-54 (18 Feb. 2011)
3. "Rare or Threatened Plants of Victoria" (PDF). Department of Primary Industries, Victoria.