Internal links: Monilophytes > Osmundales > Osmundaceae > Todea
External links: Monilophytes > Osmundales > Osmundaceae > Todea
Wikipedia links: Monilophytes > Osmundales > Osmundaceae > Todea
Other links:
Species: T barbara
Common name: unknown
Conservation status: unkown
Etymology:
Named in honour of Heinrich Julius Tode (1733–1797), German botanist and clergyman, author of Fungi Mecklenburgenses Selecti (1790–1791)
Spores:
x
Leaves:
x
Stem & branches:
x
Roots:
x
Habit:
x
Habitat:
x
Distribution:
x
Species:
World: S, G
Australia: S, G
Additional notes:
The fern genus Todea is known from only two living species
Species in the genus Todea, as Leptopteris, are distinct from other in Osmundaceae in that sporangia are born on laminar pinnules
Description
The species in the genus have a sub-erect stem and coarse, pinnate leaves. Many large sporangia are located on the bottoms of the leaves and are not arranged in sori or covered by an indusium
Species
Only two extant species are currently recognised. Todea barbara L., known as the king fern, is native to South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia while Todea papuana H. is known only from Papua New Guinea.
So far the fossil record of the genus Todea consists only of the permineralized rhizome Todea tidwellii from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island, Canada and the species Todea amissa, known from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina