Bolbitis
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Dryopteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Terrestrial or subscandent fems of medium size. Rhizomes elongate, slender to rather stout, clothed with scales. Fronds rather long-stipitate; stipes not articulate; blades strongly dimorphic, simple and entire to pinnate or 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, glabrous, the fertile ones usually taller and narrower than the sterile ones, or at least with narrower divisions; pinnae not articulate; veins reticulate, the areoles with or without included free veinlets, rarely all veins free (not ours). Sporangia covering abaxial surface of the fertile pinnae; indusium and paraphyses absent; sporangia with annulus usually of 14-16 cells; spores more or less ellipsoid, monolete, usually with prominent winglike or echinate folds, or the folds sometimes reticulate.
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Discussion
Type Species. Bolbitis serratifolia (Mertens) Schott, based Acrostichum serratifolium Mertens, of Brazil.
A pantropical genus of 44 species, including 14 in tropical America; four have been found in Puerto Rico, none endemic. The generic name is derived from the Greek bolbition, diminutive of bolbos, bulb, alluding to the small, proliferous bulbils or gemmae bome on the fronds of some species. The Greek word bolbitis also means squid or cuttlefish.
Special Literature. Hennipman, E. 1977. A monograph of the fem genus Bolbitis (Lomariopsidaceae). Leiden Univ. Press (Leiden Bot. Ser. No. 2), xii + 331 pp., 12 plates, 87 figs.; Tryon, R. M . & A. F. Tryon. 1982. Fems and allied plants, pp. 600-607, 17 figs.