Pteris tripartita

Common Name: giant brake

Family: Pteridaceae

Common Synonyms: Litobrochia tripartita

USDA Hardiness Zone: NA

Growth Habit: Large herb

Origin: Africa, Asia Temperate, Asia Tropical, Australasia, Pacific

FISC Category: 2

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 1928

IFAS Assessment:

• North: OK
• Central: OK
• South: INVASIVE

Description

Stems stout, short-creeping, densely and conspicuously scaly; scales pale brown. Leaves clustered, 1--2 m. Petiole straw-colored to brownish red, to more than 1 m, scaly proximally, otherwise glabrous at maturity. Blade deltate to pentagonal, pedate, ultimate divisions pinnately divided, 1--2 × 1--2 m; rachis not winged. Pinnae few, closely spaced, remaining green through winter, not decurrent on rachis, not articulate to rachis, oblong-lanceolate, 1--3-forked, to 7 × 6 dm; base asymmetrical, acute; apex acute; rachis and costae glabrate or with minute hairs, especially near axils of proximal pinnae; penultimate pinnules linear to linear-lanceolate, pinnatifid, separated, not remaining green through winter, not articulate to rachis. Ultimate segments of blade numerous, linear-oblong to linear-lanceolate, to 19 × 6 mm, margins entire or serrulate, apex obtuse and rounded to acute; terminal segments 3--4 cm longer and more tapering than lateral segments. Veins anastomosing near costae and costules, becoming forked and free near margins of ultimate segments. Sori narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially.

Habitat

Low, moist habitats like wet flatwoods, cattail stands, floodplains, hardwood swamps, cypress swamps and hardwood hammocks

Comments

May require continuously saturated soils.

Control Methods

• Manual: NA
• Chemical: NA
• Biological: None known.

Control Notes

Decontamination of equipment and clothing important after working infested areas. Plant produces spores all year round.

References

IFAS, UF. 2023. Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas. https://assessment.ifas.ufl.edu/assessments/ Accessed August 8, 2023.

eFloras (2008). Published on the Internet http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200003413 [accessed 8 August 2023] Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.