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Todea

Genus of ferns

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated June 26, 2025
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The fern genus Todea is known from only two living species. Species in the genus Todea, as Leptopteris, are distinct from other in Osmundaceae in that sporangia are born on laminar pinnules.

01Description

The species in the genus have a sub-erect stem and coarse, pinnate leaves. Many large sporangia are located on the bottoms of the leaves and are not arranged in sori or covered by an indusium.

02Species

Only two extant species are currently recognised. Todea barbara L., known as the king fern, is native to South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia while Todea papuana H. is known only from Papua New Guinea.

So far the fossil record of the genus Todea consists only of the permineralized rhizome Todea tidwellii from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island, Canada and the species Todea amissa, known from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina. Todea minutacaulis has also been described from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island and represents the first anatomically preserved fossil fern sporeling from the fossil record.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Todea”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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