Species profile—Bowenia serrulata (Byfield fern)

Classification

Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Zamiaceae → Bowenia serrulata (Byfield fern)

Species details

Kingdom

Plantae (plants)

Class

Equisetopsida (land plants)

Family

Zamiaceae

Scientific name

Bowenia serrulata (W.Bull) Chamb.

Common name

Byfield fern

WildNet taxon ID

17845

Alternate name(s)

butchers fern

Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status

SL

Conservation significant

Yes

Confidential

Yes

Endemicity

Native

Pest status

Nil

Description

Bowenia serrulata is a cycad with an underground stem to 25cm in diameter, branched into 5-20 short, slender crowns with 3-35 leaves per crown. Leaves are 1-2m long and up to 1m broad, and each leaf has 6-16 spreading branches(pinnae). There are 7-30 sharply and regularly serrate leaflets (pinnules) on each branch. The leaflets measure 7-15cm long and 1.5-4cm wide.
The pollen cones are stalked, egg-shaped, 4-7cm long and 2.5-3cm in diameter. Seed cones are egg-shaped to globular, not stalked, and 8-12cm in length and 7-10cm in diameter. Seeds are 2.5-3.5cm long and 1.5-2cm wide, with a white fleshy seed coat maturing to a dull purple.
Bowenia serrulata is distinguished from B. spectabilis by the number of crowns. The distributions of the two species do not overlap. (Hill 1998, 2004)

Habitat

Bowenia serrulata occurs in moist areas of open forest and woodland, notophyll vine forest and rainforest. It has been recorded growing in sandy soils, brown clay soils, on creek banks and on steep, hilly, coastal ranges. (Hill 1998, 2004)

Reproduction

Bowenia species appear to be pollinated by a species of Miltotranes weevil.

Predators

The species is reputed to have toxic parts (Everist 1974).

Management documents

Conservation and management of protected plants in trade in Queensland 1995-1998. Department of Environment.

Notes

Contributors: Ailsa Holland, Gary Wilson, Mellisa Mayhew 17/06/2009

References

Everist, S. (1974). Poisonous Plants of Australia. Angus and Robertson Publishers Pty Ltd. Sydney.
Herbrecs (2008). Bowenia serrulata, in BriMapper version 2.12. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 23/09/2008.
Hill, K.D. in McCarthy, P.M. (Ed) (1998). Flora of Australia 48: 636.
Hill, K. (2004). Bowenia serrulata, in The Cycad Pages online. Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. Accessed 23/09/2008. http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/PlantNet/cycad/index.html
Hill, K. & Osborne, R. (2001). Cycads of Australia. Kangaroo Press, Australia.
Jones, D.L. (2002). Cycads of the World, Ancient Plants in Today's Landscape. edn 2. New Holland Publishers, Australia.
Wilson, G.W. (2002). Insect Pollination in the Cycad Genus Bowenia Hook, ex Hook.F. (Stangeriaceae). Biotropica 34(3): 438-441.

Profile author

Ailsa Holland (17/06/2009)

Other resources

• The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
• Atlas of Living Australia

Data source

This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=17845.

This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.