Authority:

Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

Family:

Pteridaceae

Description:

Species Description - Plants often gregarious, forming numerous tufts; rhizome short, erect, at apex bearing numerous narrowly lanceolate, delicately clathrate, denticulate scales. Fronds several to numerous, narrowly linear, widest above the middle and tapering very gradually toward both ends; costa grooved adaxially, prominent beneath; main veins few, longitudinal, connected distantly and irregularly by short transverse veinlets, the areoles narrow, unequal. Soral lines always one on either side of costa, continuous or nearly so.

Discussion:

Basionym. Vittaria intramarginahs Baker ex Jenman, J. Bot. 15: 266. 1877.

Type. Jenman 58, in 1877, from Jamaica (K).

Syn. Polytaenium lineatum var. intramarginale (Baker ex Jenman) Proctor, Amer. Fem J. 72: 114. 1982.

This plant has been treated as synonymous with P. lineatum (Tryon & Tryon, 1982) or as a variety of this species (Proctor, 1985). However, fieldwork in Puerto Rico since 1983 has convincingly demonstrated that this entity should be treated as a species in its own right, being perfectly uniform in its development, never intergrading with P. lineatum, and having an entirely allopatric distribution pattem involving different ecological parameters. The numerous collections n o w available fully support this view.

Distribution:

Costa Rica South America| Panama Central America|