Danaea elliptica Sm.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Marattiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Danaea elliptica Sm.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome stout and oblique or more slender and erect (if the latter, standing up to 25 cm above the ground), densely beset with swollen stipe bases and papery stipules. Fronds 40-90 cm long, very dark green; stipes deep oUve-brown, with 1-4 nodes, and bearing numerous small brown scales. Sterile blades broadly oblong to subovate, 20-35 cm long, 15-30 cm broad; pinnae 2-6 pairs and a similar terminal one, oblanceolate-oblong to narrowly elliptic, acuminate or sharply acute, entire throughout but often slightly undulate; veinlets simple or forked near the base (rarely forked near or above the middle); minute, suborbicular, mostly fimbriate scales scattered on tissue and vascular parts beneath. Fertile blades slightly shorter and narrower than the sterile ones, with narrower pinnae.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 17.

    Lectotype. Sloane Herb. vol. 1, p. 85, collected on Mt. Diablo, Jamaica (BM).

    The description of this species given above includes a variant which may deserve taxonomic recognition, but which needs further study. This variant, which occurs in the central and westem mountains at rather high elevations, has an erect, rather slender rhizome standing above the ground like a miniature tree-fern (and sometimes supporting a growth of epiphytic Hymenophyllaceae!); the pinnae are sharply acute and submucronate at the apex (instead of acuminate), and the veins are forked near the middle (instead of near the base). The photograph of this species in Tryon and Tryon (1982: 46) illustrates this form.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles,

    West Indies| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Mexico North America| Central America| Brazil South America| Bolivia South America| Peru South America| Ecuador South America| Colombia South America| Venezuela South America| Guyana South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America|