Hanging fork fern

Description

Tmesipteris the "hanging fork fern", is a genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales (the other being Psilotum). Tmesipteris is restricted to certain lands in the Southern Pacific, notably Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. In New Zealand this hanging epiphyte is common in the warm temperate rain forests of both main islands, where it can normally be found as short spiky dark-green fronds (10–15 cm long), often with lighter bag-like sporangia at the bases of some of its "leaves". The plant possesses no true leaves; what appear to be leaves are flattened stems. The fronds emerge directly from the fibrous root-mats which clad the trunks of mature tree ferns such as Dicksonia and Cyathea. Tmesipteris is from the Greek language, meaning a "cut fern", referring to the truncated leaf tips.