Thelypteris asplenioides (Sw.) Proctor

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Thelypteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Thelypteris asplenioides (Sw.) Proctor

  • Description

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    Species Description - Rhizome somewhat woody, decumbent or ascending, densely clothed at apex with thin, brown, minutely stellate-pubemlous, narrowly lance-attenuate scales mostly 8-10 mm long. Fronds monomorphic, non-proliferous, and rather few; stipes 2-16 cm long, glabrate to sparsely stellatepuberulous. Blades narrowly oblong to lance-oblong, 10-22 cm long, 3-10 cm wide near base, fully pinnate to near the apex; rhachis stellatepuberulous and also with a few longer simple hairs; pinnae 12-20 pairs, altemate, narrowly deltate-oblong, falcate, 1.5-5.5 cm long, 0.4-1.1 cm wide at base, the lower ones short-stalked, the stalks subarticulate to the rhachis, blunt or acutish at apex, shortly auriculate-lobed at base on one or both sides, the margins otherwise crenate or very shallowly lobed; costae, and to a much lesser extent the costules and veins, minutely stellate-puberulous on both sides, more densely beneath; veins pinnately branched to the lobes or crenations, the lowest adjacent ones joined in the tissue and sending an excunent veinlet to the sinus, the veins otherwise simple, ending in the sclerotic margin; tissue coriaceous, lustrous on adaxial side, glabrous or occasionally minutely and sparsely stellate-puberulous on adaxial side. Sori inframedial, mostly on proximal veins, rarely also on other veins in lobes; indusium very small, often concealed by the sporangia, ciliate with forked and stellate hairs; sporangia glabrous.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater Antilles. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Known only from the Cordillera Central; recorded from Adjuntas, Ciales, Jayuya, Penuelas, and Ponce. Habitat. Wooded slopes and shaded banks in montane forest at high elevations (1000-1220 m), rare or locally frequent.

  • Discussion

    Basionym. Polypodium asplenioides Swartz, J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 26. 1802.

    Type. Swartz, from Jamaica (S ?, not seen; isotypes Herb. Thunb. 24634, U P S ; Herb. Willd. 19677, B, photo US).

    Syn. Woodsia pubescens Sprengel, Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Caes. Leop.-Carol. Nat. Cur. 10: 233, t. 16, figs. 5-7. 1821. (Type not seen.)

    Goniopteris asplenioides (Swartz) K. Presl, Tent. pterid. 182. 1836.

    Aspidium reptans var. asplenioides (Swartz) Mettenius, Abh. Senckenberg. Naturf. Ges. 2: 383 (no. 237, var. 4). 1858.

    Aspidium asplenioides (Swartz) Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W.L 693. 1864, excl. syn.

    Bryopteris asplenioides (Swartz) Kuntze, Revis. gen.pl. 2: 812. 1891.

    Nephrodium asplenioides (Swartz) Baker in Hooker & Baker, Syn. fil. 293. 1868, with regard to name only; Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica n.s. 3: 211, 1896.