Asplenium pumilum Sw.

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Aspleniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asplenium pumilum Sw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome short, erect, 2-5 mm thick, with apical tuft of iridescent, gray-brown to blackish, linear- attenuate scales to 3 mm long with hairlike tips. Fronds seasonal, deciduous, mostly 5-20 cm long; stipes very slender, 1.5-12 cm long, often longer than the blades, sparsely clothed throughout with scattered, minute, whitish, septate hairs. Blades variable, the smaller ones merely 3-lobed or 3-parted, the largest ones (var. anthriscifolia) broadly pentagonal (up to 9 cm broad), with 2-4 pairs of lateral pinnae and a deltate-acuminate, lobed apical one; lowest pinnae unequally deltate (the basal basiscopic division longer than the conesponding acroscopic one), coarsely lobed (the first lobe sometimes free), the other lateral pinnae more or less lanceolate with crenate-dentate margins; tissue delicately herbaceous, with veins very oblique, subpinnately forked. Sori numerous, variable in length up to 10 mm long; indusium whitishtranslucent with minutely ciliate margin.

  • Discussion

    Type. Swartz, from Jamaica (S, photo US; isotype Herb. Thunb. 24835, UPS).

    Syn. Asplenium anthriscifolium Jacquin, Collectanea 2: 103, t. 2, figs. 3, 4. 1788 (1789). (Type. Jacquinl, from Martinique, W , not seen, fragm. BR, not seen.)

    Asplenium pumilum var, anthriscifolium (Jacquin) Wherry, South, Fern Guide 346, 1964.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Florida, Greater Antilles, Virgin Islands, Lesser Antilles, Tobago, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Peru and Brazil; also reported from Africa.

    United States of America North America| West Indies| Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Brazil South America| Africa|