Hemionitis palmata L.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Pteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Hemionitis palmata L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome short, suberect, 0,5-1 cm thick, laxly clothed with tawny, linear-attenuate scales. Fronds several, subdimorphic, the sterile ones short-stipitate, spreading or nearly prostrate, with blades 3- or 5-lobed, the lobes short, rounded or acutish. Fertile fronds rigidly erect, 15-35 cm long; stipes much longer than the blades, dark purple-brown, deciduously villous with lax or retrorse pluricellular hairs. Blades pentagonal in outline, 5-15 cm long and broad, 3-partite, the distal portion ovate to oblong-lanceolate and coarsely lobed below the acute apex, a scaly viviparous bud usually bome at one side of the base of this portion; basal segments inequilateral, forked near the base (rarely tripartite), the upper division larger, both similar in outline to the apical division; costae dark brown abaxially, at least toward proximal end of each. Tissue sparsely hirsute adaxially, freely so beneath.

  • Discussion

    Lectotype. Plumier, Descr. pl. Amer., t. 33, fig. 1, based on a plant from Martinique.

    Syn. Gymnogramma palmata (Linnaeus) Link, Hort. Berol. 2:48. 1833,

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles,

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