Polypodium crassifolium 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 crassifolium L.

  • Description

    Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /home/emu/nybgweb/www-dev/htdocs/science-dev/wp-content/themes/nybgscience/lib/VHMonographsDetails.php on line 179

    Species Description - Rhizome short-creeping, woody, 5-15 mm thick, enveloped in a dense mass of rootlets, clothed at apex with imbricate, bicolorous, finely clathrate, lance- to ovate-acuminate scales 8-12 mm long, these with blackish central stripe and pale subentire margins. Fronds few, close, stiflfly erect, up to 1.3 m long; stipes stout, 3-10(-15) cm long, broadly grooved on adaxial side, narrowly green-marginate. Blades ligulate or narrowly oblanceolate, mostly 4-14 cm broad near or above the middle, rounded to abmptly acute at apex, attenuate at base, with narrowly cartilaginous margins; primary veins oblique, very prominent, 4-10 mm apart, parallel, the secondary veins forming numerous inegular areoles, many of the areoles enclosing a simple or branched free veinlet, the free veinlets pointing in diflferent directions; tissue stiflf, leathery, and opaque. Sori large and prominent, 1.5-3.5 mm in diam. or more, each arising from an inegular ring of united veinlets, uniseriate and medial between the primary veins, mostly confined to the distal half of the blade.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Pem, Bolivia, and Brazil. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Widely occurring in the Siena de Luquillo, Siena de Cayey, and Cordillera Central, and also in the Rio Abajo State Forest; recorded from Adjuntas, Arecibo, Barranquitas, Cayey, Maricao, Naguabo, Rio Grande, and Utuado. To be expected in suitable habitats of Jayuya, Orocovis, Ponce, and other areas in the Cordillera Central. Habitat. Shaded or somewhat exposed boulders, rocky banks, cliflfs, and tree-trunks at middle to high elevations (300-1100 m), locally frequent.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 96.

    Lectotype. Petiver, Pter. Amer., t. 6, fig. 1, copied from Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 142, based on material from M o m e de la Calebasse, Martinique.

    An authentic Plumier specimen formerly existed in the herbarium of Surian (no. 757), P. At some time the specimen was removed, but the impression left on the page is unmistakably that of P. crassifolium.

    Syn. Phymatodes crassifolia (Linnaeus) K. Presl, Tent. pterid. 197. 1836.

    Drynaria crassifolia (Linnaeus) J. Smith, J. Bot, (Hooker) 4: 61, 1841.

    Dipteris crassifolia (Linnaeus) J. Smith, London J. Bot, 1: 196, 1842.

    Pleuridium crassifolium (Linnaeus) Fee, Mem, foug, 5:274, 1852.

    Pleopeltis crassifolia (Linnaeus) T. Moore, Index fil, Ixxviii. 1857.

    Pessopteris crassifolia (Linnaeus) Underwood & Maxon, Contr, U.S, Natl, Herb, 10: 485, 1908.

    Niphidium crassifolium (Linnaeus) Lellinger, Amer, Fem J, 62: 106, fig. 1. 1972.