Stems slender, branching, floating on water, individually or form dense monospecific thin mats (20cm thick) with hanging, simple roots up to 6cm long, without scales. Plants 1-2.5cm long, bipinnate, dark green/blue to bright red, small, not spirally coiled when young, fronds densely imbricate, 2-lobed leaves and rhizomes. Upper lobe floating, ovate, obtuse covered above in unicellular hair, non-soluble, margins hyaline. Lower lobe submerged, bears the sori in pairs on cylindrical receptacles, borne 1st leaf of each branch, heterosporous, indusium surrounding from base, consists of either numerous microsporangia developed successively from apex to base of sorus or a single megasporangium, called sporocarp (1.5mm), annulus 0. Each sporangium has 1 megaspore with 3 floats; massulae of 64 microsporangium, massula branching barbed hairs, not divided by transverse walls into cells, glochidia joins megaspore and massulae. Propagates both sexually and asexually. Spores are dispersed.
Not threatened in native sites, Native to western Australia and New Zealand, Name status: Current (Florabase, 2013)
Not threathened
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