Botanical name
Todea barbaraFamily
OsmundaceaeCommon Name
King Fern, KoningsvaringDescription
Large thick-set fern with stout black, erect rhizome up to 80cm tall and 30cm in diameter. Fronds tufted, erect, glabrous at maturity, up to 1.8m long. Lamina are 2-pinnate, pinnae linear to lanceolate, margins crenate; rachis narrowly winged; large sori are round to ovate covering undersurface of pinnules of the basal third of the lower pinnae.
After: German clergyman and botanist H.J.Tode (1733- 1797).
Latin: barbarus = strange, wild; possibly referring to the foreign or strange nature of the plant when Linnaeus first saw and described it in 1753.
Habitat
Sandy seepage areas on mountain slopes, edge of streambanks or in light shade