Davallia denticulata var. denticulata (Mettenius ex Kuhn, 1867)
Description
Rhizome without the scales 3-15 mm in diametre, not white waxy (D. denticulata Rhizome). Scales red-brown or nearly black, with pale border from base to apex or without pale border, narrowed evenly towards the apex or flat and nearly acicular, narrowed abruptly from a broad base, often curling backward, not bearing multiseptate hairs, toothed, peltate, 4-8 mm long by 0.5-1.5 mm broad. Stipes pale, adaxially grooved, 4-50 cm long, glabrous or with few scales. Lamina compound (D. denticulata Habitus2), bipinnate or quadripinnate towards base and in the middle part, deltoid and broadest towards base, glabrous, 16-90 cm long by 13-50 cm broad, not or slightly dimorphous. Longest petiolules 4-35 mm long. Pinnae deltoid. Longest pinnae 8-45 cm long by 5-30 cm broad. Pinnules of at least the larger pinnae anadromous, deltoid. Longest pinnules 70-200 mm long by 40-110 mm broad. Ultimate leaflets linear oblong or narrowly ovate, lobed almost to the midrib or only shallowly lobed. Ultimate segments 5-27 mm long by 2-6 mm broad. Upper ridge at the junction of the costa and pinna-rachis not swollen. Leaf axes glabrous. Margins of the lamina of each leaflet not thickened. Veins in sterile ultimate lobes pinnate (or forked in very narrow lobes), reaching the margin. False veins present. Sori separate, borne several on a segment, at the forking point of veins. Indusium also attached along the sides, pouch-shaped, oblong, longer than wide or about as wide as long, 1-1.3 mm long by 0.5-1 mm broad, upper margin not elongated, truncate or slightly rounded, separated from or even with lamina margin (D. d. denticulata SEM, picture of indusia). Lamina generally extending into a tooth at both sides of a sorus.
Distribution
Generally common.
Africa and Indian Ocean: Madeira, Tropical and South Africa, Madagascar, Comores, Seychelles, Christmas Island.
Continental Asia: Sri Lanka, India (Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Thailand, Burma, China (Hainan), Indo-China (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam).
Malesia: Throughout.
Australia: Queensland.
Pacific: Samoa; Society Islands (Tahiti).
Ecology
Epiphyte on many different species of trees and in different types of forest incl. mangrove forest or on solitary trees, epilithic on granite, limestone, or sandstone, terrestrial on different kinds of soil, for instance on sand in edge of Kerangas. Altitude 0-2200 m.
Note
Davallia brevisora Ching is a form with the false veins absent or inconspicuous.