Mickel, John T. & Smith, Alan R. 2004. The pteridophytes of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 88: 1-1054.
Nephrolepidaceae
Species Description - Rhizomes short-creeping to suberect, well developed, lacking tubers; rhizome scales concolorous, linear, castaneous, 2–3 x 0.5 mm, margins whitish-ciliate; stipes brown, lustrous, glabrous or glabrescent but with a few persistent scales at bases; blades often pendent, 30–100+ x 3.5–7 cm; costae brownish, glabrous except for matted, linear scales at pinna bases; pinnae sessile to shortstalked, bases unequally lobed with basiscopic lobe small and overlapping rachis, acroscopic lobe larger, acute to obtuse, overlapping rachis, pinna apices usually obtuse, margins crenate; indument on both surfaces generally absent; hydathodes often limedotted on adaxial blade surfaces; indusia tan, reniform to semicircular, 1.3–1.5 x 0.2–0.3 mm, attached along broad, shallow sinuses, mostly opening toward pinna apices; 2n =ca. 82 (Galapagos).
Aspidium pendulum Raddi, Opusc. Sci. 3: 289. 1819. Type. Brazil. Raddi s.n. (FI; isotype K!).
This species is sometimes treated as a synonym of N. cordifolia, e.g., by R. Tryon (1964: 230), Stolze (1981: 311), and R. Tryon and Stolze (1993: 52), but others regard N. pendula as distinct (e.g., Nauman in Davidse et al., 1995: 288). The two species seem amply different to us, with N. pendula differing in the moderately to densely scaly petioles (proximal third or more), scalier rachises adaxially, glabrous pinnae abaxially, nonoverlapping pinnae, rounded pinna tips, more prominent hydathodes (with lime dots) adaxially, and lack of subterranean tubers. Moreover, the two have distinctly different ranges, with N. cordifolia being essentially absent or only sparingly naturalized in Mexico, Central America, and South America, N. pendula being common in these areas.
Bolivia South America| Brazil South America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| French Guiana South America| Suriname South America| Guyana South America| Venezuela South America| Puerto Rico South America| West Indies| Cuba South America| Panama Central America| Costa Rica South America| Nicaragua Central America| Honduras Central America| Belize Central America| Guatemala Central America| México Mexico North America|