Pteris cretica L.

Rhizome shortly creeping; rhizome scales lanceolate, entire, dark brown, up to 3 mm long.  Fronds tufted, up to 1.2m long, erect to arching, firmly herbaceous to coriaceous, dimorphous with the fertile fronds taller and with narrower pinnae than that of the sterile fronds.  Stipe up to 60 cm in sterile fronds and up to 90 cm in fertile fronds, strawcoloured to brown and scaly at the base, glabrous.  Sterile lamina 13-55 × 13-38 cm, ovate in outline, pinnate in the upper part, the lower part basiscopically developed, terminal pinnae larger or as long as the longest lateral pinnae; pinnae linear-lanceolate, apex tapering to a point, base cuneate, margins toothed, glabrous on both surfaces, veins free.   Fertile lamina up to twice as large as the sterile lamina, pinnate with basal pinnae basiscopically developed; pinnae narrowly linear to narrowly lanceolate in outline, apex tapering to a point, base tapering, 7-13 mm wide, margin entire, glabrous on both surfaces.  Sori linear, marginal, continuous, extending almost up to the apex; indusium membranous, entire.   

Widespread in eastern S. Africa and the mountains of E. tropical Africa, Ascension I., Madagascar, Réunion and in Asia to Japan, and in southern Europe.

Global Range: Indigenous to Hawaii, but first described from Crete (Valier 1995).

Stems slender, creeping, sparingly scaly; scales dark brown to chestnut brown. Leaves clustered to closely spaced, to 1 m. Petiole straw-colored to light brown distally, darker proximally, 10--50 cm, base sparsely scaly. Blade irregularly ovate, primarily and irregularly pedately divided, 10--30 × 6--25 cm; rachis not winged; only terminal pinna decurrent on rachis. Pinnae 1--3 pairs, well separated, blade often 5-parted with terminal pinna and 2 lateral pairs of pinnae remaining green through winter, not articulate; sterile pinnae to 25 × 0.8--1.5 cm, serrulate; fertile pinnae narrower than sterile pinnae, to ca. 11 mm wide, spiny-serrate; base acute acroscopically and decurrent (sometimes narrowly and barely so) basiscopically, glabrous; proximal pinnae with 1 (rarely 2) basiscopic lobes. Veins free, simple or forked. Sori narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially.