Eriosorus
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Pteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Small (erect) to large (scandent) tenestrial fems. Rhizome creeping or decumbent, slender, usually bearing bristly glandular hairs and numerous slender roots. Fronds monomorphic, densely attached to the rhizome, very diverse in size and cutting, 1 -pinnate to 4-pinnate-pinnatifid or rarely 6-pinnate, usually pubescent (often densely so) or glandular; veins free. Sporangia clustered along unmodified veins, not reaching the vein-tips, at maturity often spreading out to form a broad confluent band; indusium and paraphyses absent; spores tetrahedral-globose, trilete, coarsely ridged or tuberculate. Gametophytes spathulate.
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Discussion
Type Species. Eriosorus scandens Fee, now conectly known as Eriosorus aureonitens (Hooker) Copeland.
A chiefly neotropical genus of 25 species, most of them confined to mountainous localities; 19 of them occur along the Andes Mountains of South America at elevations over 3000 meters. A single species has been found in Puerto Rico, where it occurs only in the vicinity of El Yunque in the Siena de Luquillo. The genenc name is derived from the Greek erion, wool + sorus, alluding to the woolly indument concealing the sporangia in the type species.
SpecialLiterature. Tryon, A. F. 1970. A monograph of the fem genus Eriosorus. Contr. Gray Herb. 200: 54-174; Tryon, R M. & A. R Tryon. 1982. Fems and allied plants, pp, 228-235. 30 figs.