Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Leptopteris ×intermedia (B.S.Williams ex T.Moore) Gower, 4: 318–319 (1873)
Synonymy:
  • Todea ×intermedia B.S.Williams ex T.Moore., Gard. Chron. 29: 813 (1869)
Type: No original material appears to exist (Moore saw only live plants imported by Williams from New Zealand) and there are no contemporary illustrations. It would therefore be consistent with the protologue to choose a neotype from among specimens in New Zealand herbaria. The neotype here designated is a single fertile frond with a long stipe and triangular lamina, originally identified as ‘Todea hymenophylloides var. intermedia’: B.S. Parris, 26 December 1963, ‘1 mile east of Tongariro township’ [North Island, New Zealand], AK 259335!
Etymology:
From the Latin intermedius (intermediate), a reference to the hybrid origin of this fern, which is intermediate between L. hymenophylloides and L. superba.
 Recognition

Leptopteris hymenophylloides and L. superba frequently occur together in wet, forested areas, and they hybridise readily. Plants of Leptopteris ×intermedia are intermediate in morphology between the two parent species (Brownsey 1981, fig. 1). They often have a degree of hybrid vigour and fronds are frequently larger than those of either parent species. The laminae are generally elliptic in outline, like L. superba, but the basal pair of pinnae are longer and the primary pinnae broader than in that species. The ultimate laminal segments are sometimes bent at 90º to the plane of the frond, but not as frequently as in L. superba.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Cytology

n = 22 (Brownsey 1981). Hybrids show regular bivalent formation at meiosis and have spores of normal appearance, suggesting some degree of fertility (Brownsey 1981).

 Bibliography
Brownsey, P.J. 1981: A biosystematic study of a wild population of Leptopteris hybrids in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 19(4): 343–352.
Brownsey, P.J.; Given, D.R.; Lovis, J.D. 1985: A revised classification of New Zealand pteridophytes with a synonymic checklist of species. New Zealand Journal of Botany 23(3): 431–489.
Brownsey, P.J.; Perrie, L.R. 2014: Osmundaceae. In: Breitwieser, I; Heenan, P.B.; Wilton, A.D. (ed.) Flora of New Zealand — Ferns and Lycophytes. Fascicle 4. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.
Earp, C. 2021: William Hugh Gower, the pseudonymous author of fern names in Osmundaceae and Cyatheaceae. New Zealand Journal of Botany 59: xx–xx.
Gower, W.H. ['G'] 1873: Tree ferns. The Garden 4: 317–318.
Williams, B.S. 1869: Gardeners' Chronicle 29: 813.