Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Davallia trichomanoides Blume, Enum. Pl. Javae 2, 238 (1828)
Synonymy:
Holotype: Java, Blume s.n., L 0051487 (!online)
  • = Davallia mariesii T.Moore ex Baker, Ann. Bot. 5: 201 (1891) nom. illeg., non Davallia mariesii H.J.Veitch 1880
Type: Japan, in Hort. Veitch, nos.1878, 1879, Herb. T. Moore, K 000061859–000061860 (!online; see Nooteboom 1994)
Etymology:
From the Greek Trichomanes (a filmy fern), and -oides (like).
 Recognition

Davallia trichomanoides is known in the wild only from a single juvenile, sterile collection but it also occurs in cultivation. The rhizome scales are very similar to those of D. griffithiana in having marginal setae but lacking the multiseptate hairs of D. tasmanii. Cultivated fronds are generally larger and more divided than in D. griffithiana, usually 4-pinnate rather than 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, and the ultimate segments are narrower. Davallia trichomanoides is most easily distinguished when fertile. The sori are oblong and terminate the veins well inside the pinna margins. The indusia are narrowly oblong and attached at the base and along the whole of both sides, forming deep pouches, 1.2–1.7 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide; the apex is truncate or slightly rounded, ending inside the lamina margin, usually with a lamina tooth on one or both sides.

 Distribution

North Island: Northland

Altitudinal range: 10 m.

Known only from one collection at Rāwene, Hokianga.

Occurs naturally from India and China to Japan and south-east Asia (Nooteboom 1998).

 Habitat

Recorded from a small, sterile patch on an open clay bank under native shrubs as a probable escape from cultivation.

 Biostatus
Exotic
 First Record

Webb et al. (1995, p. 152, as D. mariesii). Voucher WELT P015795, 1987.

 Notes

Nooteboom (1994) reduced Davallia mariesii to synonymy under D. trichomanoides but noted that in cultivation it behaved like a good species, and might be best treated as a cultivar with the name ‘Mariesii’.

 Bibliography
Baker, J.G. 1891: A summary of new ferns discovered since 1874. Annals of Botany 5: 181–221.
Blume, C.L. 1828: Enumeratio Plantarum Javae. J.W. van Leeuwen, Leiden.
Brownsey, P.J.; Perrie, L.R. 2018: Davalliaceae. In: Breitwieser, I.; Wilton, A.D. (ed.) Flora of New Zealand — Ferns and Lycophytes. Fascicle 22. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.
Nooteboom, H.P. 1994: Notes on Davalliaceae II. A revision of the genus Davallia. Blumea 39: 151–214.
Nooteboom, P. 1998: Davalliaceae. In: Flora Malesiana, Series II, Ferns and Fern Allies. Vol. 3. 235–276.
Webb, C.J.; Sykes, W.R.; Garnock-Jones, P.J.; Brownsey, P.J. 1995: Checklist of dicotyledons, gymnosperms, and pteridophytes naturalised or casual in New Zealand: additional records 1988–1993. New Zealand Journal of Botany 33: 151–182. [as Davallia mariesii T.Moore ex Baker]