Clades:
Dipteridaceae.
Genus: 7 species.
Region: Asia, northeastern Queensland in Australia, Pacific.
Habitat: tropical; in clearings, mountain ridges, forest margins; on clay slopes, along rivers, sunny roadside banks, high rainfall areas; altitudes of 500 to 1200 m; coastal cliffs; in poor to well drained soils; disease and pest resistant.
Content: 2 ent-kauranoid hydroxy acids.
Use: umbrella; native medicinal; ornamental in Singapore.
BotanyFerns; 2 to 3 large stalks to the sporangium and annulus.
Root: creeping rhizomes, with black shiny bristles or hairs or reddish brown hairlike scales; hairs are ± 5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide; with several divisions to toothed lobes.
Stem: stipes, stalks; 40 to 200 cm tall; with hairlike scales at base, and then becomes smooth and glabrous; straw coloured to brown; appeara at regular intervals along the rhizome, branch three or four times.
Leaves: mid green or dark green; with uniseriate hairs; to 50 cm long, 100 cm wide.
Spores: spore-capsules that are carried on the lower surface of the broad lobed frond.