• Family : MARATTIACEAE
  (MARATTIA FAMILY)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : MARATTIACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Marattia fraxinea Sm.
• Habit : Herb-Terrestrial
• Key identification features : Rhizome erect, massive, fleshy, bearing dense, spirally arranged leaf bases; stipular flaps one on either side of the leaf base, flabellate, thick at bottom, gradually becoming thinner towards margin, including two buds, older one in its upper part, younger one in its lower part, covered densely by flesh red, thin, soft, appressed hairs and scales. Stipes upto 120 cm long, 3 cm thick, covered by scales and hairs when young, greenish above, purplish below, bearing linear whitish streaks throughout. Lamina bipinnate, deltoid, pinnae upto 16 pairs, subopposite with 7 cm long stalk, base dark coloured and swollen; largest pinna lanceolate with termina pinnules; pinnules upto 20 pairs, opposite or subopposite, shrotly stalked, 3 cm apart, oblong-lanceolate, margin serrate; costa slightly raised below; veins well distinct below, slightly above; pinnae dark green above pale green below, glabrous except occurrence of few hairs on rachis and rachules; texture thick, herbaceous. Sori submarginal on each vein, ellipsoid; sporangia upto 12 pairs on two rows, fused adjacently, dehisced by longitudinal split; spores monolete round.
• Collector(s) Name : F. M. Jarrett & C. J. Saldanha
• Collection Nos : FMJ & CJS 17090
• Collection Locality : Palni Hills
• Distribution :
  • Tamil Nadu : Palni Hills (Dindigul district)
• Native : Brazil
• Conservation Status : At Risk
• Literature : Manickam V.S & Irudayaraj V. (1992)- Pteridophyte flora of W.Ghats, South India
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Marattia fraxinea. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)