Haplopteris elongata (Sw.) E.H.Crane

Rhizome rather long creeping, much branched, bearing roots with very numerous water-absorbing root hairs; scales dark brown, brightly iridescent, subulate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm, 0.5-1 mm wide at base, margin prominently denticulate, apex bristlelike, areole wall thick, dark colored. Fronds clustered, drooping; stipe ca. 0.5 mm distant; lamina thinly leathery, linear or ribbonlike, up to 100 × 0.5-2 cm, base gradually narrowed, apex rounded or obtuse; costa slender, not prominent, veins evident. Soral line marginal, immersed in deep groove, open outward, fertile throughout; paraphyses many, long, with head obconic, longer than wide. Spores monolete, narrowly oblong in outline, surface ornamentation obscure.

Grows in rainforest and other moist habitats, often in the root mass of large epiphytes but also on mossy trunks, fallen logs and moist rocks, boulders and cliff faces. On Norfolk Island not common, on tree fern trunks and fallen logs in King Fern Valley and similar habitats (Green 1994: 567). On Christmas Island common in the rainforest, mainly on the plateau and upper terraces, usually growing from the root mass of other epiphytic ferns such as Asplenium nidus, and may form large, attractive clumps of narrow, pendulous fronds (Du Puy 1993: 543).

A medicinal plant in India (Beasley 2009: 140).