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:
Pteridaceae
Pteridaceae
Description:
Species Description - Rhizomes forming tussocks in more or less saline swamps, clothed at apex with linear to ovate, rigid, dark brown scales to 1.5 cm long. Fronds 1.5-3 m long, monomorphic; stipes much shorter than the blades, subterete, bearing several altemate indurated spurs. Blades 20-40 cm broad, obtuse or somewhat acute in outline at the apex; pinnae 10-14 pairs and a similar terminal one, elliptic-ligulate, 10-25 cm long, 3-6 cm broad, rounded-obtuse at apex and emarginate or short-apiculate, cuneate at base; tissue light green, coriaceous, glabrous, the margins cartilaginous, revolute. Fertile pinnae 1-4 pairs at the apex of otherwise sterile fronds, similar in size and shape to the sterile pinnae or slightly smaller.
Species Description - Rhizomes forming tussocks in more or less saline swamps, clothed at apex with linear to ovate, rigid, dark brown scales to 1.5 cm long. Fronds 1.5-3 m long, monomorphic; stipes much shorter than the blades, subterete, bearing several altemate indurated spurs. Blades 20-40 cm broad, obtuse or somewhat acute in outline at the apex; pinnae 10-14 pairs and a similar terminal one, elliptic-ligulate, 10-25 cm long, 3-6 cm broad, rounded-obtuse at apex and emarginate or short-apiculate, cuneate at base; tissue light green, coriaceous, glabrous, the margins cartilaginous, revolute. Fertile pinnae 1-4 pairs at the apex of otherwise sterile fronds, similar in size and shape to the sterile pinnae or slightly smaller.
Discussion:
Fig. 50.
Lectotype. Plumier, Descr. pl. Amer., t. 7, based on a plant from Martinique.
Syn. Chrysodium vulgareFee, Mem, foug, 2: 97. 1845. (Based on Acrostichum aureum Linnaeus, for which it was an illegitimate renaming.)
Chrysodium aureum (Linnaeus) Mettenius, Fil, hort, bot. Lips. 21, 1856.
Distribution: