Anemia tomentosa var. mexicana (C.Presl) Mickel

  • Authority

    Mickel, John T. & Beitel, Joseph M. 1988. Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 46: 1-580.

  • Family

    Anemiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Anemia tomentosa var. mexicana (C.Presl) Mickel

  • Description

    Variety Description - Rhizome horizontal, compact, short-creeping, ca. 7 mm diam.; rhizome hairs orange; fronds erect, 9-39 cm tall; stipe ½-2/3 the frond length, stramineous to light brown, hirsute; blade deltate-ovate, bipinnate-pinnatifid, chartaceous to subcoriaceous; pinnae 6-13 pairs, opposite to subopposite, pinnules narrowly adnate, ovate, lobes acute, lamina hirsute; veins free; fertile pinnae approximate to or remote from the sterile pinnae, about equal to the sterile blade in height; spores tetrahedral-globose, striate, ridges smooth, close; chromosome numbers n = 114 (Oaxaca), 76 (Jalisco).

  • Discussion

    Anemia fulva (Cavanilles) Swartz [gamma] mexicana Presl, Suppl. tent, pterid. 84. 1845, based on A. flexuosa var.? [sic] anthriscifolia sensu Kunze, Linnaea 18: 308. 1844 as to specimen cited, not basionym. Type. “In regione subtropica Mexico orientalis, Leibold pl. mex. exs. sine num.” Holotype probably in Kunze herbarium at LZ, destroyed in World War II. The two cytotypes of A. tomentosa in Mexico apparently are restricted geographically and can be distinguished by spore size. The hexaploid, which occurs in Oaxaca, has spores 76-94 (aver, ca. 81) µm in diameter, whereas material from Jalisco (tetraploid) and Sonora have spores 69-79 (aver. ca. 74) µm in diameter. Anemia tomentosa is distinguished in Mexico by its thin texture and bipinnate-pinnatifid dissection. In Mexico it most closely resembles A. karwinskyana, which is distinct in its catadromous architecture and whose segments are more obtuse and rounded rather than toothed.

  • Distribution

    Infrequent on open to slightly shaded grassy slopes (often grazed, generally disturbed); Centro, Huajuapan, Juchitán, Miahuat-lán, Tlacolula, Villa Alta, Yautepec; 950-1850 m, down to 60 m in Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Mexico (Chih, Dgo, Son, Sin, Nay, Jal, Tam, SLP, Ver, Pue, Oax); Hisp; Col, Ven. Three other vars. in southern South America.

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