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Vascular Plants of California
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Sphaeropteris
AUSTRALIAN TREE FERN

Higher Taxonomy
Family: CyatheaceaeView Description 

Common Name: CLIFF FERN FAMILY
Habit: Trees; rhizome modified as a trunk, generally short-creeping, ascending, or erect; scales especially on trunk tip, stipe bases, small to generally large, generally uniformly tan to brown, among hairs or not. Leaf: generally tufted or short-spaced, 1--1.5[6] m, generally +- alike; stipe firm, not easily crushed, base darker or not; blade [1]2[3]-pinnate [(simple)], +- glabrous or with hairs, hair-like scales, or gland-tipped hairs on axes, veins generally free (netted); axes generally grooved adaxially. Sporangia: sori +- spheric; indusia 0 [saucer- or cup-like to spheric]; spores variously ornamented, scar 3-rayed. Chromosomes: x=69.
Genera In Family: 5--6 genera, +- 600 species: worldwide, generally tropics. Note: Some recognize only 1 genus in family.
eFlora Treatment Author: Thomas J. Rosatti
Scientific Editor: Alan R. Smith.
Sphaeropteris
Habit: Trunk generally 1, often thickened by fibrous mass of adventitious roots basally, generally with distinct, +- round or oblong leaf scars. Leaf: generally 2-pinnate, stipe scales of various sizes, not intergrading with hairs or black spines, cells of +- 1 size, orientation (not clearly smaller, of different orientation on margin). Sporangia: sori in 1 row on each side of pinnule lobe midvein.
Species In Genus: +- 100 species: +- worldwide, southern temperate, tropics (except Africa). Etymology: (Greek: sphere, fern, for sori)
Jepson eFlora Author: Thomas J. Rosatti
Reference: Clark & Summers 2013 Madroño: in press
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)

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Next taxon: Sphaeropteris cooperi

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Citation for this treatment: Thomas J. Rosatti 2013, Sphaeropteris, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, Revision 1, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=89353, accessed on April 18, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.