Marsilea
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Marsileaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
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Species Description - Plants of shallow ponds, ditches, marshy fresh-water shores, and seasonal rainpools. Fronds 4-foliolate (cloverlike), the entire blade more or less orbicular in outline, the segments cuneate, sessile. Sporocarps subglobose to oblong-ovoid, at maturity splitting into two valves, each valve emitting a band of mucilaginous tissue which bears the sori at intervals within membranous envelopes; megaspores somewhat ovoid with an apical papilla-like laesura, the surface compactly rugulose; microspores spheroid, trilete, the surface densely covered with compact folds or papillae. Chromosome number: n = 10.
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Discussion
Type Species. Marsilea quadrifoha Linnaeus of southem Europe, Asia, and Japan; naturalized in temperate North America.
A cosmopolitan genus of about 50 species. The generic name commemorates Luigi F. Marsigli (1658-1730), a noted Italian naturahst and botanist who founded the Academy of Sciences, Bologna.
Special Literature. AUsopp, A. 1952. Longevity of Marsilea sporocarps. Nature 169: 79-80; Tryon, R. M . & A. F. Tryon. 1982. Fems and allied plants, pp. 760-764, 9 figs.; Johnson, D. M . 1986. Systematics ofthe New World species of Marsilea (Marsileaceae). Amer. Soc. Pl. Tax., Syst. Bot. Mon. 11: 1-87, 19 figs.