Calochlaena dubia, commonly known as soft bracken, false bracken, common ground fern or rainbow fern, is a small Australian fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

 in the treefern family Dicksoniaceae

Dicksoniaceae

The Dicksoniaceae is a family of tropical, subtropical and warm temperate ferns. Most of the 5-6 genera in the family are terrestrial ferns or have very short trunks compared to tree ferns of the family Cyatheaceae. However, some of the larger species can reach several metres in height. A number of...

. It is very common within its range, and often seen growing under eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...

 forest, often on the poorer quality soils. It is an easy plant to grow in the garden.

Taxonomy

One of the many plants described by Scottish botanist Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

 in 1810, with the name Davallia

Davallia

thumb|right|245px|[[Davallia solida var. pyxidata|"Hare's Foot"]] on [[Sydney sandstone|sandstone]], [[Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park]], [[Australia]]...

 dubia, it gained its current name with the new genus Calochlaena

Calochlaena

Calochlaena is a genus of ferns within the Dicksoniaceae family. Although these ground ferns resemble bracken, they are only distantly related. Five species are known from Melanesia, Polynesia and eastern Australia. Calochlaena dubia, is a common fern of the east coast of Australia...

described in 1988. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 kalos "beautiful" and chlaina "cloak", and refers to the soft hairs on the species, while the species name dubia is the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 dubious. It was known for many years as Culcita dubia, before the genus Calochlaena was split out in 1988.

The true bracken

Bracken

Bracken are several species of large, coarse ferns of the genus Pteridium. Ferns are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells . Brackens are in the family Dennstaedtiaceae, which are noted for their large, highly...

s belong to the family Dennstaedtiaceae

Dennstaedtiaceae

Dennstaedtiaceae is one of fifteen families in the order Polypodiales, the most derived families within monilophytes . It includes the world's most abundant fern, Pteridium aquilinum . Members of the order generally have large, highly divided leaves and have either small, round intramarginal sori...

.

Description

The frond

Frond

The term frond refers to a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group...

s arise from the thick brown haired rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s and are anywhere from 0.4 to 1.5 m in height. The foliage is a more yellow green colour, in contrast to the darker shiny green of bracken (Pteridium esculentum

Pteridium esculentum

Pteridium esculentum, commonly known as Austral bracken or simply bracken, is a species of the bracken genus native to a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere....

). The stipe changes from dark brown, through reddish- to yellow brown, and is covered with soft brown hairs. The fronds are triangular overall and tripinnate-pinnatifid in shape. The sori occur near the margin.

Distribution and habitat

Calochlaena dubia is found as an understory plant in open forests and rainforests in eastern Australia, from Queensland, through New South Wales and Victoria into Tasmania. It can form large banks or swathes.

Cultivation

Well suited to the garden, Calochlaena dubia is an easy plant to grow. In fact, it must be kept in check by cutting the rhizomes and given plenty of room. It does well on clay soils.