Monographs Details:
Authority:

Taylor, W. Carl. 1976. Vascular flora of Jonca Creek, Ste Genevieve County, Missouri. Castanea. 41: 93-118.
Family:

Dryopteridaceae
Description:

Latin Diagnosis - Ab E. amplo Mickel squamis rhizomaticis longioribus (3-4 mm, non 1-2 mm), phyllopodiis longioribus (12-16 mm, non 2-5 mm), squamis laminaribus multo densioribus differt.

Species Description - Plants epiphytic; rhizomes long-creeping, 2-3 mm in diameter, scales linear, lustrous, dark brown, 2-4 mm long, entire or with sparse, irregular, small teeth; phyllopodia distinct, 12-16 mm long; leaves 10-40 mm apart, to 63 x 12.5-3.5 cm; petioles 1/2-2/3 the sterile leaf length, stramineous to pale reddish brown, densely scaly, the scales of two types, one lanceolate, ciliate, 2-3.5 x 0.3-0.5 mm, dark brown to blackish, appressed to spreading, the other ovate to ovate-lanceolate, only slightly ciliate, 0.3-2 x 0.2-0.4 mm, pale brown, appressed; blades narrowly elliptic, chartaceous, apically acuminate, basally broadly cuneate; veins evident, free, ca. 1.5-2 mm apart, set at ca. 800 to costae, hydathodes lacking; blade scales adaxially broadly lanceolate, ciliate, tan to pale reddish brown, 0.3-1 x 0.2-0.8 mm, appressed, longer and blackish along the costae, deciduous, abaxially broadly lanceolate, ciliate, tan to pale reddish brown, 0.5-2 x 0.3-1 mm, appressed, longer and blackish along the costae, marginally broadly lanceolate, ciliate, orange, the cilia partly indurated, 1-1.5 x 0.5-1 mm, spreading, forming several dense, continuous rows; fertile leaves unknown.

Discussion:

(Fig. 4 G-K)

This species resembles E. amplum Mickel in overall habit, blade shape, and the presence of a marginal row of orange scales on the blades, but differs in its longer rhizome scales (3-4 mm vs. 1-2 mm), longer phyllopodia (12-16 mm vs. 2-5 mm), and much denser blade scales. One specimen (same locality as type, Bach 984, GOET, LPB) differs from the other specimens in having broadly elliptic blades to 4.5 cm wide but only to 13 cm long, and with numerous black, lanceolate scales on the blade surfaces. Elaphoglossum cotapatense is locally common at 2550-3300 m on Cerro Hornuni in Cotapata National Park (Bach, 2004).