Botanical name
Elaphoglossum angustatumFamily
DryopteridaceaeCommon Name
Buck Tongue Fern, Paddle FernDescription
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