Named after the German botanist A.W. Dennstedt (1776-1826).

Dennstaedtia flaccida (G.Forst.) Bernh.

Terrestrial ferns. Rhizomes short- to long-creeping, hairy. Fronds often large, pinnate (not in Australia) to 4-pinnate; veins free; scales absent; fronds and rhizomes hairy or sometimes glabrous and spiny (not in Australia). Sori round or ovate, marginal, on a slightly raised receptacle terminating the veins, sometimes with paraphyses, protected by cup-shaped or slightly bivalvate indusia with downturned edges; bivalvate indusium formed from a true inner indusium and an outer modified inrolled lamina flap. Spores trilete, coarsely ridged or reticulate.

Base chromosome numbers of x = 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 46 and 47 are known, J.D. Lovis, Advances in Botanical Research 4: 229–415 (1977).

A genus of about 70 species in the tropical and temperate regions of the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. One endemic species in Australia.

Very closely related to and sometimes difficult to distinguish from Microlepia.

Brownsey, P.J. (1998). Dennstaedtia, Flora of Australia 48: 215. (Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra).

Tryon, R.M. (1960). A review of the genus Dennstaedtia in America, Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University 187: 23–52.

Data derived from Flora of Australia Volume 48 (1998), a product of ABRS, ©Commonwealth of Australia