Asplenium obtusifolium L.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Aspleniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asplenium obtusifolium L.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Rhizome 2-5 mm thick, nearly naked, the exposed apex bearing a few minute, brown, deltateacuminate scales. Fronds subsucculent in life, then deep translucent green, becoming membranous and dark brown or blackish when dried, 5-40 cm long, glabrous and naked throughout; stipes up to 11 cm long, shorter than or sometimes equalling the blades, terete at base, becoming grooved upwardly on adaxial side. Blades 1 -pinnate (or sometimes in very luxuriant plants 1-pinnate-pinnatifid or nearly 2-pinnate), oblong to deltate-oblong, 3.5-8 cm broad, obtuse or acutish at apex, truncate at base; rhachis narrowly greenish-marginate adaxially; pinnae 3-9(-15) pairs, obliquely oblong to oblong-lanceolate, in small fronds rounded-obtuse and subentire to dentate, in large fronds more or less acuminate, at base auriculate or deeply lobed on both or just the acroscopic side, up to 2.5 cm broad, with margins erose-dentate to deeply and sharply serrate (except for the entire concave lower basiscopic edge); veins oblique, mostly 1- to 3-forked. Sori slightly curved, up to 10 mm long; indusium nanow, firm, grayish-brown, entire.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Cuba?, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Lesser Antilles, Tobago, Trinidad, Venezuela, and Colombia. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Known from rather few localities in the Siena de Luquillo and Cordillera Central; recorded from Jayuya, Ponce, Rio Grande, Utuado, and Villalba. Habitat. W et rocks in deeply shaded streambeds, often in the spray of waterfalls, or sometimes periodically submerged in clear, flowing water, at middle to high elevations (480-1250 m), rare or in a few places locally frequent.

  • Discussion

    Type. Petiver, Pter. Amer., t. 2, fig. 14 (not ""fig. 4" as cited by Linnaeus), copied from Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 67, which was based on a plant from Morne de la Calebasse, Martinique.