Notes

USES. None recorded. CONSERVATION Widespread; least concern (LC). Sori of fertile specimens of T. gemmifera vary from barely 0.5 mm diameter (gemmae present) to almost 3 mm diameter (gemmae absent); the precociously fertile or, indeed, sterile specimens will almost always be covered by the largest (7 mm in diameter) or the most numerous (to 25 in Pirozynski P104) gemmae; i.e. a large physiological debt arises to account for the production of gemmae; but only one 5 mm gemma and a fully sporiferous blade in Thomas 1498.In the presence of gemmae sori will occasionally develop only in segments near tips of pinnules. From the point of reproduction, large sori in the absence of gemmae or many gemmae on sterile or precociously fertile fronds, may offer an equal chance of creating progeny. An increased dissection of the blade can carry a larger number of gemmae. A caution must be sounded to check gemmae closely. Due to occasional infestation by psychids (Psychideae, insects) specimens have been wrongly identified as T. gemmifera. Psychids coat their coccoon with “locally available” materials. On fern blades spores serve this purpose. As the larva clings to the vascular supply, a thick coat of spores is sometimes mistaken for a gemma. In the literature ‘white hairs’ are mentioned with the indumentum; during this survey they were observed just once (Pirozynski P104), a fine down of white, septate hairs (lost early) arranged regularly, following the vascular system and admixed with stout glandular cells.