Botanical name

Elaphoglossum angustatum

Family

Dryopteridaceae

Common Name

Buck Tongue Fern, Paddle Fern

Description

Uncommon fern with a creeping rhizome 4-7mm in diameter. Fronds spaced, simple, leathery in texture, margins entire; lamina of fertile fronds smaller and narrower than sterile lamina. Sori cover entire undersurface of fertile lamina but do not extend right up to the midrib.

Greek: elaphos = deer; glossa = tongue; referring to the tongue-shaped lamina (leaf blade) of this species.

Habitat

Usually lithophytic (growing on rocks) on wet rock faces and boulders in forest but frequently on trees in cool temperate coastal forests, also occasionally terrestrial on mossy earth banks near streams