Skeleton Fork-fern at Westcourt, QLD
Identification history
| Psilotum nudum | 28 Jun 2025 | JasonPStewart | ||
| Psilotum nudum | 22 Sep 2024 | JasonPStewart |
Identify this sighting
Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.
User's notes
A wild skeleton fork fern (fern–ally),
which evidently has grown in this decades old, planted, nature strip, street tree .
_Psilotum nudum_ confer with _Psilotum complantum .
3 comments
Tapirlord
wrote:
3 Dec 2024
It looks more like what I know of P.nudum to me just at a glance. Were you unsure or?
JasonPStewart
wrote:
3 Dec 2024
I reckon *Psilotum nudum* too,
yet systematically following the botanical keys i read at the time says *Psilotum nudum* usually does not have as flattened stems as this sighting's and pointing somewhat towards *P. complanatum* genes (one of the motivations for sharing this sighting here, as i have other clearly *Psilotum nudum* sightings not in here) .
Introgressions happen a lot in plants especially in ferns and especially in edge areas or disturbed areas .
At this location this small area of street tree, is surrounded by largely treeless suburbia, so in evolutionary time scale terms quite unusual habitat for this species and we anticipate unusual interactions .
Clearly detecting introgression and evidencing it sufficiently to publish is a whole 'nother level of work (of course).
yet systematically following the botanical keys i read at the time says *Psilotum nudum* usually does not have as flattened stems as this sighting's and pointing somewhat towards *P. complanatum* genes (one of the motivations for sharing this sighting here, as i have other clearly *Psilotum nudum* sightings not in here) .
Introgressions happen a lot in plants especially in ferns and especially in edge areas or disturbed areas .
At this location this small area of street tree, is surrounded by largely treeless suburbia, so in evolutionary time scale terms quite unusual habitat for this species and we anticipate unusual interactions .
Clearly detecting introgression and evidencing it sufficiently to publish is a whole 'nother level of work (of course).
JasonPStewart
wrote:
28 Jun 2025
Made time to again look into this, including with a small comparison specimen from a plant growing wild in a suburban road side traffic management area garden bed amongst its planted shrubs .
Location information
- Coordinates 145.751708-16.927078
- Altitude 12.9m
- Places Westcourt, QLD
Sighting information
- 2 Abundance
- 3 Aug 2024 02:12 PM Recorded on
- JasonPStewart Recorded by
-
Collections
Rainforest Plants across Au, including phenology basic info – JasonPStewartNMsnc2016 NatureMapr Ferns and Clubmosses Plants Psilotum nudum
Additional information
- 10cm to 30cm Plant height
Species information
- Psilotum nudum Scientific name
- Skeleton Fork-fern Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 55m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes