Family |
Osmundaceae
Osmunda regalis
L.
Osmunda regalis L.
First published in Sp. Pl.: 1065 (1753).
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 4, Pl. II, 1; 1966)
Description
Life-form & habit: Large perennial fern with a thick, black rhizome.
Leaves: Long-stalked, twice-divided fronds can reach 2 m. The oblong leaflets are finely toothed in the plants described by Mouterde.
Reproductive structures: Fertile fronds have leafy, twice-divided lower branches and an upper branching cluster whose divisions are reduced almost to their axes and covered in brown sporangia.
Flowering and habitat
Phenology: Spore production in spring–summer.
Habitat & elevation: Very wet sandstone and sandy ground; Mouterde records it at 1,700 m on the Zahle pass.
Distribution
Lebanese distribution: Dekouaneh, Bouchriye, Abey, below Beit Mery, Broummana, Qrayye, Salima, Mayrouba, Hammana, Falougha, Ain Qaa, Ain Zehalta, Khan Sannine, Zahle pass, Kfertay and Sannine.
Native range: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, France, Free State, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Kriti, KwaZulu-Natal, Lebanon-Syria, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Caucasus, Northern Provinces, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Rwanda, Réunion, Sardegna, Sicilia, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sudan-South Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Introduced into: Austria, Madeira, New Zealand North.
⚠️ Taxonomic note:
Mouterde describes the local plants as Osmunda regalis var. plumieri. Kew accepts Osmunda regalis and includes Osmunda plumieri Tausch and O. regalis f. plumieri within its synonymy; the morphology and Lebanese records here follow Mouterde's local account.