Elaphoglossum decoratum (Kunze) T.Moore

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Dryopteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Elaphoglossum decoratum (Kunze) T.Moore

  • Description

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    Species Description - Rhizome short-creeping, ascending, or erect, stout, 1-2 cm thick (excluding scales and stipe bases), densely clothed with light brown, thin, filiform to lance-linear scales mostly 15-25 mm long, these acuminate, laxly crispate-undulate, and glabrous. Sterile fronds crowded, erect, 30-90 cm long; stipes stout, grooved adaxially, densely covered vrith large, thin, yellowish-brown, cordate scales, and also with minute, glandular, stellate scales; phyllopodia obscure; blades linear- lanceolate to oblong or elliptic-oblong, 20-50 cm long, 5-13 cm broad, abruptly short-acuminate at apex, roundish to acute at base; rhachis scaly like the stipe (but scales smaller); margins covered by a series of imbricated scales 2-3.5 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, blunt at apex and cordate at base, attached at base or peltate, the edges fringed with minute gland-tipped teeth; blade surfaces minutely and distantly stellatescaly especially on abaxial side; veins mostly 1-forked near base, parallel, ending in the slightly cartilaginous margins; tissue dark green, thick, coriaceous. Fertile fronds smaller than the sterile ones; stipes 30-35 cm long; blades lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 16-20 cm long, 4-7 cm broad, acute or short-acuminate at apex, short-attenuate at base, with minute glandular scales on adaxial side, and scales like those of stipe toward base of rhachis beneath.

  • Discussion

    Basionym. Acrostichum decoratum Kunze, Linnaea 9: 25. 1834.

    Type. Poeppig, Diar. 1134, from Pampayacu, Peru (LZ, destroyed, not seen).

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, and continental tropical America, rare throughout its range.