Monographs Details:
Authority:

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

Dryopteridaceae
Description:

Species Description - Rhizome creeping, 5-10 mm thick (excluding scales and stipe bases), densely clothed toward apex with golden-brown, narrowly deltate-acuminate scales mostly 5-10 mm long, the margins irregularly ciliate. Sterile fronds crowded or slightly apart, erect, 17-32 cm long; stipes mostly 6-15 cm long, grooved on adaxial side and narrowly marginate throughout, bearing scattered minute, appressed, glandular, stellate scales and at first a few spreading, dark brown, lance-linear scales up to 3 mm long; phyllopodia blackish, up to 1.5 cm long, concealed by the rhizome scales; blades narrowly elliptic, 9-19 cm long, 3-4.5 cm broad, acute or short-acuminate at apex, short-attenuate and decurrent at base, on both sides bearing scattered minute, appressed, stellate scales, these with black centers; veins simple or 1- to 2-forked, the tips reaching the cartilaginous margins; tissue coriaceous, subopaque. Fertile fronds much smaller than the sterile ones; stipes 6-8 cm long; blades ovate, mostly 5-8 cm long, 2-3 cm broad, acute at apex, truncate or short-cuneate at base, and of brittle texture.

Discussion:

Type. Maxon 2961, from Troy, Trelawny, Jamaica (US; isotypes GH, MICH, NY).

Syn. Elaphoglossum pteropus of Maxon, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico & Virgin Is. 6: 399. 1926, not C. Christensen, 1905.

Distribution: