Cheilanthes sp.

Rock Fern at Binjura, NSW

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Identification history

Cheilanthes sp.	25 Jan 2023	MichaelMulvaney
Cheilanthes sieberi	21 Jan 2023	natureguy
Cheilanthes sieberi	21 Jan 2023	mahargiani

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11 comments

Tapirlord wrote:

23 Jan 2023

@dcnicholls Hey David, just curious for your thoughts. I was wondering if this might be C.distans.

mahargiani wrote:

23 Jan 2023

I had wondered, it looked a bit different from normal, which is why I posted it.

natureguy wrote:

24 Jan 2023

It doesn’t look hairy enough to me that’s why I was happy with C. Sieberi but there might be other features that are more definitive.

dcnicholls wrote:

24 Jan 2023

If it does look like C. distans, sometimes you don’t see much in the way of hairs, but if they’re present at all, it’s likely C distans. Certainly the shape of the fronds looks like that.

mahargiani wrote:

24 Jan 2023

We have lots of both species in this area. I'm pretty sure that this one is not C distans, maybe simply new growth of C sieberi with brighter foliage.

natureguy wrote:

24 Jan 2023

Happy for you to confirm @dcnicholls if you’re confident

dcnicholls wrote:

24 Jan 2023

The frond shape is not characteristic of C. sieberi. I suspect there is hybridisation between species, and also habitat variation within a species.

mahargiani wrote:

24 Jan 2023

Would not be easy to get back to this specimen for further checking (phone GPS not accurate enough, plus difficult access). Suggest we leave it as Cheilanthes sp. Over the last year have seen several Cheilanthes plants in the Cooma area which look a bit different from sieberi/distans, maybe some of these could be hybrids as well.

Tapirlord wrote:

25 Jan 2023

@MichaelMulvaney wondering if you have any thoughts? I'm thinking Cheilanthes sp.

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

25 Jan 2023

Sieberi looks most likely - but lets confirm only to genus level

dcnicholls wrote:

26 Jan 2023

Agree. Morphology is definitely C distans, but without obvious hairs.

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