Lygodium japonicum (Thunb.) Sw.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Lygodiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lygodium japonicum (Thunb.) Sw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome long-creeping, slender, densely clothed with short, dark brown, articulate, glistening hairs. Fronds contorted-creeping and twining; rhachis greenish or light brownish, glabrate or minutely puberulous between the narrow wings; primary rhachis-branches 1-2(-5)mm long, minutely pubemlous with pale hairs especially at apex. Secondary branches 2-3-pinnate with variable deltate pinnules up to 6 cm long or more, the sterile pinnules variously lobed with 3-7 lobes, one of them usually much longer than the others, with obtuse apex and irregularly serrulate margins. Fertile pinnules smaller than the sterile ones, often with much reduced green tissue; sporangiophores 2-10 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 18.

    Basionym. Ophioglossum japonicum Thnnherg, Fl iau 328 1784

    Lectotype. From "prope Nagasaki, in Kosido et Satsuma," Japan, Herb. Thunberg 25222 (UPS).

    Syn. Hydroglossum japonicum (Thunberg) Willdenow, Abh. Kurfurstl.-Mainz. Akad. Nutzl. Wiss. Erfurt 2, pt. 4: 26. 1802

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Japan, southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region; widely cultivated elsewhere and sometimes escaping; recorded as widely naturalized m southeastem United States.

    Japan Asia| Asia| United States of America North America| Pakistan Asia| India Asia| Nepal Asia| Bhutan Asia| China Asia| Puerto Rico South America|