Epiphytic relations of the Soft Tree Fern Dicksonia antarctica Labill and the vascular plant species utilising its caudex ...

• Main Author: Bowkett, LA
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23210534; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Epiphytic_relations_of_the_Soft_Tree_Fern_Dicksonia_antarctica_Labill_and_the_vascular_plant_species_utilising_its_caudex/23210534

This study fills a void in autecological research of D. antarctica by investigating the epiphytic relationships between the tree ferns and those vascular plant species which utilise its caudex. Research was based on hypotheses designed to explain aspects of the distribution of obligative epiphytes and the reliance of facultative epiphytes on D. antarctica caudices as well as why apogeotropic roots of terrestrially rooted specimens invade the tree fern's root mantle. Close to 1200 specimens of Soft Tree Fern (D. antarctica) were examined in 19 replicate field plots representative of temperate moist forests in north-eastern Tasmania. Dicksonia antarctica morphological and site floristics variables were recorded from each site. Selected parametric and non-parametric statistical tests were employed to analyse the relationships between and among the observed and recorded environmental, morphological, floristic, epiphytic and apogeotropic variables. Dicksonia antarctica frond plasticity was first examined because ...