Trichomanes capillaceum L.

  • Authority

    Mickel, John T. & Beitel, Joseph M. 1988. Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 46: 1-580.

  • Family

    Hymenophyllaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Trichomanes capillaceum L.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Rhizome very fine, 0.1-0.3 mm diam., long-creeping, hairlike; rhizome hairs sparse to abundant, brown, 0.3 mm long; roots present; fronds 5-10(-15) cm long, 1-5 cm wide, distant, glabrous; stipe ca. ¼ the frond length, 0.1-0.3 mm diam., glabrous, non-alate, green to stramineous (darker at base); blade lanceolate, ovate to ob-lanceolate, light yellow-green, membranaceous, 3-4-pinnate, lower pairs of pinnae slightly reduced; rachis non-alate; pinnae non-alate in 1/3 proximal to rachis, ultimate segments filiform, 0.1-0.3 mm wide, emarginate, margins entire, plane; veins free, false veins lacking; sori often 1(-4) per pinna, terminating proximal veinlets, stalked and free from the tissue; involucre narrowly funnelform, 0.3-0.5 mm wide at middle, 1.5 mm long, mouth flared, 0.8-1.0 mm wide, entire.

  • Discussion

    Vandenboschia capillacea (Linnaeus) Copeland, Philipp. J. Sci. 67: 53. 1938. Lectotype (chosen by Proctor, Ferns Jamaica 109. 1985). Plumier, Traité foug. Amér., t. 99D. 1705, based on a plant collected in Haiti. Trichomanes tenellum Hedwig, Fil. gen. sp. ad t. 6, text. 1799. Type. Hedwig’s figure. Trichomanes trichoideum Swartz, J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 98. 1801. According to A. R. Smith (1981), this was an illegitimate renaming of Trichomanes tenellum Hedwig (see Morton 1973, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 38: 274). Trichomanes trichodes Swartz, FI. ind. occ. 3: 1741. 1806 (renaming of T. trichoideum Swartz). Trichomanes hypnoides Christ, Bull. Herb. Boissier II, 5: 725. 1905. Type. Mexico. Chiapas: Zontehuitz, Münch 108 (P?; isotype DS). The very finely dissected blade, hairlike segments and non-alate stipe distinguish T. capillaceum in Oaxaca. Oaxacan material agrees with the description of T. capillaceum, without the intermediates between it and T. angustatum Carmichael reported in Chiapas (A. R. Smith, 1981). Trichomanes angustatum, known from Mexico (Chis), Guatemala to Honduras, Greater Antilles, Tristan da Cunha and Colombia and Bolivia to Paraguay, has broader ultimate segments (0.5-0.7 mm wide) and pinna rachises alate to the rachis.

  • Distribution

    On tree fern trunks or rarely on wet rocks by streams, wet montane forests at middle elevations; Ixtlán, Tehuantepec, Tuxte-pec, Villa Alta; 1150-1900 m. Mexico (Gro, Mor, Ver, Pue, Oax, Chis); Guat to Pan; Gr Antill; Ven to Ec.

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