Danaea

• Authority

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

• Family

  Marattiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Danaea

• Description

  Genus Description - Terrestrial; rhizomes creeping, green, clothed with thin-margined stipules in two rows on the upper part of the rhizome; roots fleshy; leaf axes with swellings at pinna insertions and occasionally on the stipe; fronds dimorphic; sterile blades once-pinnate or rarely simple (not in ours), thick herbaceous to subcoriaceous; veins free, curving at margin into cartilaginous edge; scales on axes and costae, minute scales and trichomidia on veins and lamina; fertile fronds similar in dissection to the sterile but often with narrower pinnae; sporangia fused into linear, multilocular (20-100 locules) synangia extending from pinna midvein to the blade margin, synangia nearly covering the lower surface of the blade; spores bilateral.

• Discussion

  Type: Danaea nodosa (Linnaeus) J. E. Smith [=Acrostichum nodosum Linnaeus]. Danaea is a genus of about 30-35 species of the American tropics, in wet montane forests at low to middle elevations. Three species occur in Mexico, all in Oaxaca. The genus is not closely allied to others in the Marattiaceae and sometimes segregated as a distinct family. Its distinguishing features include its rhizome stipules, fleshy, dimorphic fronds with jointed axes, and synangia extending from costa to margin. Reference: Underwood, L. M. 1909. Marattiaceae. N. Amer. Fl. 16: 17-23.