Blechnum nesophilum

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Blechnum nesophilum

Distribution

Admiralty Group present, Asia-Tropical: New Guinea present, E San Christobel present, Guadalcanal present, Kolombangara present, Lihir Island present, Manus Island present, New Britain present, New Ireland present, Solomon Islands present
Malesia: So far only collected from New Guinea (Manus Island (Admiralty Group), New Britain, New Ireland, Lihir Island) Outside Malesia: Solomon Islands (Kolombangara, E San Christobel, Guadalcanal).

Notes

1. At first we included specimens here referred to as B. nesophilum with the species we have now defined as B. dilatatum. However, they differ from B. dilatatum in a number of details. Most specimens of B. nesophilum are reported to have a short erect radial caudex; the dried lamina is papery, sometimes coarsely papery; the sterile pinnae are long, oblong-narrowly elliptic, markedly attenuate, very finely toothed for most of their length, with dentate margins towards their apices; pinnae in the lower half of the lamina are set at right angles to the rhachis while the more distal pinnae are at an angle of c. 45-60°; the spores are distinctive and have a coralline ornamentation () (those of B. dilatatum are costate with thick ridges); the fertile pinnae of B. nesophilum lack the short sterile base frequently seen in basal fertile pinnae of B. dilatatum.
2. The specimen from San Christobel in the Solomons is exceptionally robust with sterile pinnae above the mid-region of the frond 3 cm in width and 32 cm in length; the basal fertile pinnae have petioles up to 2 cm long.
3. Blechnum nesophilum may be confused with B. milnei (Carruth.) C.Chr. from Fiji and some other Pacific Islands. It is possible that both B. nesophilum and B. milnei are present on the main islands of Fiji and that B. milnei is the species in the low-land rain forests.
4. In the absence of fertile fronds we have provisionally included specimens from the Solomons which almost certainly belong to this taxon.