Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
Blechnaceae
Species Description - Plants scandent; rhizome greatly elongate (to 10 m long or more), sub-woody, 0.8-1.5 cm thick. densely clothed with linear-attenuate, reddishbrown scales 8-17 mm long, these often but not always with a black median line and denticulate-ciliate margins. Fronds crowded or somewhat distant, dimorphic; stipes glabrous, grooved and yellowish- to reddish-brown adaxially, terete and dark reddish- or purplish-brown abaxially, shorter than the blades. Sterile blades glabrous, linear to lanceolate, 4-12 cm broad, tapering at both ends, pinnatisect, the basal segments vestigial and distant, the others contiguous at base; segments numerous (25-75 pairs), narrowly oblong-deltate, 3-6(-8) cm long, 0.8-1.2 cm broad at base, acuminate and more or less falcate at apex, the margins entire, often minutely revolute; veins simple or 1 -forked at base, ending in enlarged tips near the margins. Fertile blades pinnate, lanceolate to ovate, 6-15 cm broad, abruptly reduced at base; pinnae distant, linear, 3-8 cm long, 2-3 mm broad, podlike; indusium entire.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater Antilles, southe m Mexico, and Central America. Replaced by a very similar but larger species in the Lesser Antilles and northem South America. Puerto Rican specimens are somewhat intermediate, especially with regard to the rhizome scales. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Limited to higher parts of the Siena de Luquillo, Siena de Cayey, and Cordillera Central; recorded from Adjuntas, Barranquitas, Caguas, Orocovis, Ponce, and Rio Grande. Habitat. Climbing chiefly on trunks of tree ferns, occasionally on siena palms, in wet montane forest at upper middle to high elevations (700-1000 m), locally frequent or common.
Basionym. Lomaria fragilis Liebmann, Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Naturvidensk. Math, Afh. ser. 2, 1:232. 1849.
Lectotype. Liebmann Fl. Mex 773, from 'Baranca de Huitamalco,' Mexico (C, as cited by A. R. Smith, 1981: 59).
Syn. Osmunda polypodioides Swartz, Frodr. 127.1788.
(Type. Swartz, from Jamaica, S, photo US; isotype BM, photo US.)
Blechnum onocleoides Swartz, J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 75. 1802. (Based on Osmunda polypodioides Swartz.)
Onoclea polypodioides (Swartz) Swartz, ¥1. Ind. Occid. 3: 1585. 1806, not L., 1771.
Lomaria polypodioides (Swartz) Desvaux, Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris 6: 288. 1827, not Gaudichaud, 1825.
Lomaria onocleoides Sprengel in Linnaeus, Syst. veg. ed. 16,4:62. 1827.
Spicanta onocleoides (Sprengel) K. Presl, Epimel. bot. 114. 1849.
Lomaria decrescens Fee, Mem. foug. 5: 68. 1852. (Type. Linden 2019, from Cuba, not seen; illustrated by Fee, Mem. foug. 7: t. 9, fig. I. 1857.)
Blechnum polypodioides (Swartz) Kuhn, Fil. Afr. 92. 1868, not Raddi, 1819.
Struthiopteris polypodioides (Swartz) Trevisan, Atti 1st. Ven. ser. 3, 14: 571. 1869.
Lomaria attenuata of Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica no. 43: 7. 1893, not Willdenow, 1810. Lomaria feei Jenman, loc. cit. (Type. Jenman, from Moody's Gap, Jamaica, not seen.)