Haplopteris ensiformis (Sw.) E. H. Crane

ensiformis: shaped like a two-edged sword, tapering to a point.

Rhizome shortly creeping; rhizome scales shiny brown, 6-9 mm long, narrowly lanceolate in outline, apex with hair-like tip, margins sparsely ciliate. Fronds simple, arching out from tree trunk, seldom pendulous; stipe absent with the lamina extending to the rhizome. Lamina linear, up to 35 × 0.45 cm, base green or pale brown when dry; midrib hardly visible, not raised. Sori in two continuous lines just inside the lamina margin.

Rare

Madagascar, Mauritius, Tanzania, Zimbabwe

Vittaria ensiformis, commonly known as the tape fern, is a species of epiphytic fern. In eastern Australia, it grows in rainforests north from the Watagan Hills in the south, to tropical Queensland and the Northern Territory in the north. This plant first appeared in scientific literature in 1799, published by the Swedish botanist Olof Swartz from a plant collected in Mauritius.