- ≡ Aspidium wallichianum Spreng., Syst. Veg., ed. 16, 4, 104 (1827)
Dryopteris wallichiana has a stout, erect rhizome, bearing fronds 1000 mm or more in length. The stipe is densely covered in red-brown, linear and hair-pointed scales, which become darker brown on the rachis. The laminae are narrowly elliptic, and deeply 1-pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate. The pinnae are sessile, longest near the middle of the laminae, with the basal pair much shorter and sometimes deflexed. There are flat scales on the abaxial costae, the secondary segments are truncate or obtuse and adnate to the costae, and the indusia reniform (see Hoshizaki & Moran 2001).
North Island: Northland.
Altitudinal range: c. 15 m.
Collected as a self-sown plant from cultivation in Kerikeri.
Occurs naturally in North, Central and South America, southern Africa, from India to Japan, south-east Asia, and Hawai‘i (Fraser-Jenkins et al. 2018).
Recorded as self-sown up to 25 m from a cultivated plant.
Ogle et al. (2021). Voucher AK 374688, 2017.