Calochlaena is a small genus of ground ferns in the family Dicksoniaceae, within the order Cyatheales. It comprises five accepted species distributed across Melanesia, Polynesia, and eastern Australia, with a range that (per GBIF/WCVP records) extends from Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines, and Sulawesi in the west, through New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia, to Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu, and south into Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania in Australia.
The genus takes its name from the Ancient Greek kalos ("beautiful") and chlaina ("cloak"), a reference to the soft hairs covering its fronds. Although Calochlaena ferns superficially resemble bracken (Pteridium) in growth habit, the two are only distantly related. The best-known member, Calochlaena dubia, is a common ground fern along Australia's east coast and is sometimes called "false bracken."
Taxonomically, Calochlaena was first described by American botanist William Ralph Maxon as a subgenus within the fern genus Culcita. Later work found the differences between the two groups significant enough to warrant separating them: Robert A. White and Margaret D. Turner raised Maxon's subgenus to full genus rank in 1988 (Amer. Fern J. 78: 91), and the two groups are now placed in separate families — Culcita, restricted to just two species (one in Mediterranean Europe, one in North America), and Calochlaena, confined to the Melanesian, Polynesian, and eastern Australian tropics and subtropics.
Etymology
The genus name derives from the Ancient Greek kalos ("beautiful") and chlaina ("cloak"), referring to the soft hairs found on its fronds.
Distribution
Calochlaena's five species range across Melanesia, Polynesia and eastern Australia. GBIF/WCVP records extend this to Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines, Sulawesi, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, and the Australian states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.
Taxonomy Notes
Calochlaena was originally described by William Ralph Maxon as a subgenus of Culcita. Robert A. White and Margaret D. Turner elevated it to genus rank in 1988 (Amer. Fern J. 78: 91), and the two genera are now placed in separate families; Culcita is now restricted to two species (one Mediterranean European, one North American).
