Doryopteris
Doryopteris genus contains about 30 species, it is a small to medium sized fern found generally growing on rocks. First described by name authority, J. Smith, in 1841 (Flora of Australia, 1998). There is only one species found native to Western Australia, Doryopteris concolor.
The ICUN currently lists the status of Doryopteris, as not evaluated. This means that currently the genus as not been assessed according to the ICUN criteria (ICUN Redlist, 2014)
http://www.iucnredlist.org/search
The native species, D.concolor is currently listed as not threatened by Florabase (n.d).
A link to the florabase website for Doryopteris: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/20886
For D.concolor: https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/42
Nil
Doryopteris are small to medium sized land-growing ferns. Its rhizomes are erect or growing underground in a creeping fashion and are covered with dark coloured scales. Fronds are the same throughout the plant for some species there are two types of fronds, a fertile and sterile frond.
Leaflets are undivided, or almost star shaped (palmafitid) or foot shaped (pedate). The blade is leathery, with segments that are partially divided. On each leaflet are veins, these are free and form like a network.
Sporangia are grouped together into sori. These are located either at the edge, or close to the edge of the leaflet. Often these sori group together at maturity. They are protected by the edge of the blade, which is bent downwards or backwards. Spores are four sided or rounded, with a smooth surface or slightly sculptured surface.
For further information see:
The Atlas of Living Australia http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:apni.taxon:31...
Encyclopedia of Life: http://eol.org/pages/61622/details
The name of this genus is derived from the shape of the leaflets of some of the species, ‘dory’ (greek) meaning spear, ‘pteris’ meaning fern (Flora of Zimbabwe, n.d). D.concolor is known as the ‘resurrection fern’ as it can survive almost completely drying out and ‘come back to life’ (Bostock, n.d).
Doryopteris is a part of the family Pteridaceae and the subfamily Cheilanthoideae. This sub-family and its evolution is not yet fully understood. There is currently very little literature on this genus.
Kingdom Plantae
Class Pteridopsida
Order Polypodiales
Family Pteridaceae
Genus Doryopteris
Doryopteris is said to be distributed in pantropical areas (Flora of Zimbabwe, n.d). Species belonging to Doryopteris can be found in South America, Papua New Guinea and Australia. D.concolor can be found in the Kimberly region of WA and along the Eastern coast of Australia.
A map showing these regions can be found at: http://spatial.ala.org.au/?q=lsid:%22urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:apni.t...
This genus is terrestrial, most species tend to grow on rocks. Most species are found in tropical regions, preferring higher humidity (Flora of Australia, 1998). They can grow at heights between 6-3048m above sea level (Encyclopedia of Life, n.d).
Currently, there are no known uses for this genus.
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