Monographs Details:
Authority:
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
Family:
Dryopteridaceae
Dryopteridaceae
Description:
Species Description - Rhizome creeping, 5-8 mm thick (excluding scales and stipe bases), at apex densely clothed with numerous brown, narrowly deltate-attenuate scales mostly 5-9 mm long, the margins distantly ciliate or apparently glabrous and slightly erose. Sterile fronds close, erect; stipes shorter than the blades, mostly 2-7 cm long, narrowly winged or marginate throughout, grooved on adaxial side, toward base bearing scattered scales like those of rhizome, toward distal end with a few minute, dark brown, appressed, stellate scales with gland-tipped branches; phyllopodia dark brown, 0.5-1 cm long; blades narrowly elliptic, mostly 15-26 cm long (or sometimes depauperate, 7-12 cm long), 1.5-3.5 cm broad near the middle, acuminate at the apex, narrowly cuneate and short-decurrent at base, bearing a few scattered scales like those of distal part of stipe on both sides, these soon falling; veins mostly once-forked, the tips merging with the cartilaginous margin; tissue chartaceous, subopaque. Fertile fronds mostly shorter than the sterile ones; stipes 5.5-11 cm long; blades linear, 7-16 cm long, 1-1.5 cm broad, acutish at apex, attenuate and decurrent at base.
Species Description - Rhizome creeping, 5-8 mm thick (excluding scales and stipe bases), at apex densely clothed with numerous brown, narrowly deltate-attenuate scales mostly 5-9 mm long, the margins distantly ciliate or apparently glabrous and slightly erose. Sterile fronds close, erect; stipes shorter than the blades, mostly 2-7 cm long, narrowly winged or marginate throughout, grooved on adaxial side, toward base bearing scattered scales like those of rhizome, toward distal end with a few minute, dark brown, appressed, stellate scales with gland-tipped branches; phyllopodia dark brown, 0.5-1 cm long; blades narrowly elliptic, mostly 15-26 cm long (or sometimes depauperate, 7-12 cm long), 1.5-3.5 cm broad near the middle, acuminate at the apex, narrowly cuneate and short-decurrent at base, bearing a few scattered scales like those of distal part of stipe on both sides, these soon falling; veins mostly once-forked, the tips merging with the cartilaginous margin; tissue chartaceous, subopaque. Fertile fronds mostly shorter than the sterile ones; stipes 5.5-11 cm long; blades linear, 7-16 cm long, 1-1.5 cm broad, acutish at apex, attenuate and decurrent at base.
Discussion:
Basionym. Acrostichum chartaceum Baker ex Jenman, J. Bot. 20: 327. 1882.
Type. Jenman, from John Crow Peak, Jamaica (K).
Distribution: