Davallia solida var. solida (G. Forster, 1786) Swartz, 1801
Description
Rhizome without the scales 4-14 mm in diametre, generally not white waxy (D. solida Rhizome1, D. solida Rhizome2). Scales red-brown or nearly black (the peltate base black, persistent when the rest of the scale is shed) with pale border from base to apex, narrowed evenly towards the apex or above the much broader base evenly narrowed towards apex, not or seldom curling backward, bearing multiseptate hairs at least when young (hairs at least at apex of young scales, c. 1 mm long, woolly), peltate, 5-10 mm long by 1-1.2 mm broad. Stipes pale, adaxially grooved, 9-35 cm long, glabrous or with few scales. Lamina compound (D. solida Habitus2), bipinnate or tripinnate towards base and in the middle part, deltoid and broadest towards base, glabrous (sometimes with hairs on junction of rachis and petiolule), 15-90 cm long by 21-40 cm broad, not or slightly dimorphous. Longest petiolules 5-25 mm long. Pinnae linear-triangular or narrowly ovate. Longest pinnae 11-28 cm long by 6-15 cm broad. Pinnules of at least the larger pinnae anadromous, deltoid or rhomboid. Longest pinnules 40-100 mm long by 15-80 mm broad. Ultimate leaflets linear oblong or rhomboid, lobed almost to the midrib, or only shallowly lobed (in bipinnate leaves the ultimate segments shallowly lobed). Ultimate segments 10-40 mm long by 3-17 mm broad. Upper ridge at the junction of the costa and pinna-rachis not swollen. Leaf axes glabrous (often hairs at junction of petiolules). Margins of the lamina of each leaflet not thickened. Veins in sterile ultimate lobes pinnate, reaching the margin or not. False veins not 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, 1.2-2 mm long by 0.5-1 mm broad, upper margin not elongated, truncate or slightly rounded, separated from or even with lamina margin (D. s. solida SEM, picture of indusia). Lamina generally not extending into teeth beyond a sorus, or (sometimes) only at the outside.
Distribution
Continental Asia: Sri Lanka (2 coll.); India (Assam, Khasia 1 coll., Andaman Islands 3 coll., Nicobar Islands 2 coll.); Burma (3 coll.); Thailand (many coll.); Cambodia (4 coll.); China (Yunnan 4 coll., Kwangsi 3 coll., Taiwan many coll.); Vietnam (Tonkin 3 coll., Cochinchina 2 coll.).
Malesia: Sumatra (many coll.); Malay Peninsula (many coll.); Anambas and Natuna Islands (2 coll.); Java (many coll.); Lesser Sunda Islands (Sumba 1 coll., Flores 3 coll.); Borneo (Sarawak 5 coll., Brunei 1 coll., Sabah 5 coll., Kalimantan Selatan 2 coll., Kalimantan Tengah 1 coll., Kalimantan Timur 9 coll.); Philippines and Moluccas (throughout common); New Guinea (Irian Jaya 8 coll., Papua New Guinea, many coll.).
Pacific: common from the Bismarck Archipelago to the Santa Cruz Islands, Samoa and the Society Islands and to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.
Ecology
Epiphytic, epilithic on different kinds of rock, or terrestrial on different kinds of soil; as well in exposed places as in deep shadow, from open rocky places and savanna's to primary rain forest. Altitude 0-1500 m.
Note
Sometimes the leaf segments are very narrow and the plant resembles var. fejeensis.