English: Vegetable fern.
Name: diplazein in Greek means double
Synonym: Athyrium esculentum; Allantodia; Anisogonium; Callipteris; Monomelangium.
Genus: ± 400 species.
Region: Asia, Oceania.
Use: edible, probably the most commonly consumed; young fronds are stir-fried and used in salads.
Philippines: Pakô.
Malaysia: Pucuk paku; Paku tanjung.
Indonesia: Sayur paku.
Thai: Phak khut.
Action: alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity.
BotanyFerns; twinsorus; large; perennial.
Region: pantropical, few temperate areas.
Root: ascending; ± 20 cm high; covered with short rufous scales of about 1 cm long.
Stem: green; deeply grooved from above; scaly or glabrous.
Leaves: deciduous or evergreen; trophopodic; monomorphic or weakly dimorphic; indusia lie on both sides of the vein; with two lunate vascular bundles; blades singular or in sets of two; entirely pinnate; oblong-lanceolate to deltate; herbaceous to papery; with linear basal sori, paired back-to-back on the same vein; indusium is linear and persistent; bipinnate; with long brownish petioles; petiole base is black and covered with short scales; frond 15 cm long; pinnae ± 8 cm long, 2 cm wide.
Sporangia: brownish.
TaxonomyDiplazium were considered belonging to
Athyriaceae,
Dryopteridaceae,
Aspleniaceae, or
Polypodiaceae. The Pteridophyte
Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 places the genus in the
Athyriaceae.