Cibotium

• Authority

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

• Family

  Cibotiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Cibotium

• Description

  Genus Description - Terrestrial; stem stout, horizontal to suberect forming a stout trunk (ca. 1 m tall in ours, erect and taller in Asian and Pacific species), densely clothed with long, soft, golden hairs; fronds large, bipinnate-pinnatifid to tripinnate, coriaceous, glabrous, glaucous or green beneath; veins free; sori marginal, indusium bivalvate, the lower valve narrower, fitting inside the upper, both valves different color from laminar tissue; annulus oblique; spores tetrahedral-globose.

• Discussion

  Type: Cibotium cha-missoi Kaulfuss. Cibotium is a genus of about ten species of eastern Asia, Hawaii, and Mexico and Central America. It is closely allied to Dicksonia and less so to Culcita, differing from them by its creeping rhizome (in ours) and tripinnate fronds. Reference: Maxon, W. R. 1912. Studies of tropical ferns. No. 3. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 16: 54-58 [Cibotium]. Although not collected in Oaxaca, one or more species of Cibotium may be expected to be found since it has been found both in Veracruz and Chiapas. Various authors (Maxon, 1912; A. R. Smith, 1981; Tryon & Tryon, 1983) have included Oaxaca in the range for Cibotium schiedei Schlechtendal & Chamisso, but no specimens from Oaxaca have been cited or located. Maxon (1912) reported C. schiedei from Veracruz and Oaxaca but cited only specimens from the former. Cibotium regale Versch & Lemaire and C. wendlandii Mettenius ex Kuhn are reported by A. R. Smith (1981) from Chiapas to Honduras. Stolze (1976) united C. wendlandii and C. guatemalense Reichenbach ex Kuhn with C. regale, reporting it from Guatemala to Mexico (Chiapas).