Polypodium heterophyllum L.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Polypodiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Polypodium heterophyllum L.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Rhizome wide-creeping, branched, densely clothed with tawny to reddish-brown, denticulate, linear-attenuate scales 5-7 mm long, these peltately attached far above the narrowed base. Fronds distant, extremely variable in form, glabrous; stipes nearly absent or up to 1.5 cm long, marginate, naked. Sterile blades oval or elliptic to narrowly elliptic and 1-3 cm long, or lanceolate to linear and 3-12 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm broad near the middle, narrowed at both ends, with margins variously subentire, sinuate, or (rarely) inegularly crenate to deeply incised. Fertile blades mostly nanower than the sterile ones and more uniform, sometimes up to 16 cm long. Veins partly reticulate, forming two rows of areoles on either side of the rhachis, the outer ones each with a single included excunent free veinlet; outermost veins partly reticulate, with many free slightly enlarged veinlet-tips not reaching the margins. Sori medial, each located at the tip of a free areolar veinlet; paraphyses brown, few, hairlike but more than one cell wide at base.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Florida, Bahamas, Greater Antilles, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, and the northem Lesser Antilles. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Known from a few widely scattered localities; recorded from Bayamon, Isabela, and Salinas; also Vieques. Virgin Islands. St. Croix, St. John, and Virgin Gorda. Habitat. Often creeping (in juvenile, sterile form) on rocks, becoming mature when climbing on stems of shmbs or small trees in rather dry woodlands and thickets at low to middle elevations (10-550 m), rare or locally frequent.

  • Discussion

    Lectotype. Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 120, based on material from "en venant des Anses a Pitre a Leogane," Haiti. A n authentic Plumier specimen exists: Herb. Jussieu 1060, P ("lifted" by Jussieu from Herb. Surian 860).

    Syn. Polypodium serpens Swartz, Prodr, 131. 1788, not G. Forster, 1786. (Type. Swartz, from Jamaica, Herb. Thunb. 24571, UPS.)

    Polypodium exiguum Heward, Mag. Nat. Hist. U.S., 2:458. 1838, not Grisebach, 1864, not Fee, 1869. (Type. Heward, from Jamaica, K.)

    Anapeltis serpens (Swartz) J. Smith, Cat. Cult. Fems 5. 1857.

    Polypodium swartzii Baker in Hooker & Baker,

    Syn. fil. 357. 1868. (Based on P. serpens Swartz, 1788, not Forster, 1786.)

    Phymatodes exiguum (Heward) Underwood, Torreya 3: 18. 1903.

    Phymatodes heterophylla (Linnaeus) Small, Fems of Florida 81. 1932.

    Microsorium heterophyllum (Linnaeus) Hawkes, Amer. F e m L 41: 52. 1951.

    Craspedaria heterophylla (Linnaeus) Diddell, Amer. Fem J. 43: 114. 1953.

    Microgramma heterophylla (Linnaeus) Wherry, South. Fem Guide 346. 1964.