Tmesipteris the "hanging fork fern", is a genus of fern-like vascular plants, one of two genera in the family Psilotaceae, order Psilotales, and class Psilotopsida (the other being
Psilotum).
Tmesipteris is restricted to certain lands in the Southern Pacific, notably
Australia,
New Zealand and
New Caledonia. In New Zealand this hanging
epiphyte is common in the warm temperate rain forests of both main islands, where it can normally be found as short spiky dark-green fronds (10–15 cm long), often with lighter bag-like
sporangia at the bases of some of its "leaves". The fronds emerge directly from the fibrous root-mats which clad the trunks of mature tree ferns such as
Dicksonia and
Cyathea.
Tmesipteris is from the Greek language, meaning a "cut fern", referring to the truncated leaf tips.