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:
Dennstaedtiaceae
Dennstaedtiaceae
Description:
Species Description - Rhizome 1 cm in diam. or more, naked or minutely scurfy. Fronds to 3 m long or more (rarely to 4 m); stipes to 1 m long, broadly channelled adaxially, light to dark brown, smooth or nearly so and essentially glabrous, bearing a few adventitious roots at extreme base. Blades deltate, to 1 m broad or more at base, acuminate, 3-pinnate-pinnatifid to nearly 4-pinnate; rhachis and primary costae mostly glabrate, the lesser vascular parts very minutely puberulous abaxially with curved, pluricellular hairs; secondary costae narrowly green-winged, the wings not decunent; pinnae opposite or subopposite, narrowly to broadly lance-oblong, subsessile; ultimate pinnules or segments broadly oblong to narrowly lance-falcate, bearing sori on small acroscopic lobules; veins simple or forked, prominulous adaxially; tissue firmly herbaceous, bright or dull green, Sori globular or ellipsoid, minute, 0.5-1 mm in diam.; inner indusium obsolete, the outer (adaxial) one nanow, reflexed, entire.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Guatemala to Brazil and Paraguay. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Of very widespread occunence, but not often collected; recorded from Arecibo, Hatillo, Las Marias, Maricao, Patillas, Rio Grande, and Utuado. Undoubtedly grows in many other municipios. Habitat. Moist ravines, thickets, and wooded slopes at lower middle to rather high elevations (200-900 m), common.
Species Description - Rhizome 1 cm in diam. or more, naked or minutely scurfy. Fronds to 3 m long or more (rarely to 4 m); stipes to 1 m long, broadly channelled adaxially, light to dark brown, smooth or nearly so and essentially glabrous, bearing a few adventitious roots at extreme base. Blades deltate, to 1 m broad or more at base, acuminate, 3-pinnate-pinnatifid to nearly 4-pinnate; rhachis and primary costae mostly glabrate, the lesser vascular parts very minutely puberulous abaxially with curved, pluricellular hairs; secondary costae narrowly green-winged, the wings not decunent; pinnae opposite or subopposite, narrowly to broadly lance-oblong, subsessile; ultimate pinnules or segments broadly oblong to narrowly lance-falcate, bearing sori on small acroscopic lobules; veins simple or forked, prominulous adaxially; tissue firmly herbaceous, bright or dull green, Sori globular or ellipsoid, minute, 0.5-1 mm in diam.; inner indusium obsolete, the outer (adaxial) one nanow, reflexed, entire.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Guatemala to Brazil and Paraguay. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Of very widespread occunence, but not often collected; recorded from Arecibo, Hatillo, Las Marias, Maricao, Patillas, Rio Grande, and Utuado. Undoubtedly grows in many other municipios. Habitat. Moist ravines, thickets, and wooded slopes at lower middle to rather high elevations (200-900 m), common.
Discussion:
Basionym. Dicksonia obtusifolia Willdenow in Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 5: 483. 1810.
Type, Bredemeyer, from Caracas, Venezuela (Herb. Willd. 20163, B, photo US).
Syn. Dicksonia ordinata Kaulfuss, Enum. filic. 226. 1824, (Type. Ventenat, from Puerto Rico, not seen. Tryon (I960) states, "Kze. Famkr. /. 106b is evidently drawn from the holotype.")Dennstaedtia ordinata (Kaulfuss) Moore, Index fil. 306. 1861.
Dicksonia dissecta of Jenman, Fems Brit. W. Ind. 63. 1899, in part, not Swartz, 1802.