Dicksonia

• Authority

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

• Family

  Dicksoniaceae

• Scientific Name

  Dicksonia

• Description

  Genus Description - Terrestrial; stem an erect trunk, apex with dense, stiff, golden brown to brown hairs; fronds large, not articulate, monomorphic (fertile lamina slightly contracted); stipe hairy; blade bipinnate-pinnatifid to tripinnate, coriaceous, with sparse hairs; sori marginal, indusium bivalvate, the lower valve fitting into the upper; sporangium with oblique annulus; spores tetrahedral, perispore lacking.

• Discussion

  Type: Dicksonia arborescens L’Héritier. Balantium Kaulfuss, Enum. filie. 228. 1824. Lectotype (according to Maxon, J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 12: 455. 1922): Balantium auricomum Kaulfuss [=Dicksonia arborescens L’Héritier]. Dicksonia is a genus of about 25 species, mostly of the temperate South Pacific, with eight said to be from tropical America, generally of high elevations. There is one species in Mexico, and in Oaxaca. Dicksonia is closely allied to Cibotium, differing from that genus in Oaxaca by its erect trunk and nonglaucous abaxial lamina, and less so to Culcita, differing from that genus by the distinct trunk and the blade only 3 times pinnate. Reference: Maxon, W. R. 1913. Studies of tropical American ferns. No. 4. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 17: 133-179.