Asplenium auriculatum Sw.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Aspleniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asplenium auriculatum Sw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome erect; rhizome scales golden brown, clathrate, 3-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, with golden hairs, 0.8-2 mm long; fronds clumped; stipe (2-)8-12 cm long, ca. ½ the frond length, gray-green or brownish-green, dull, narrowly alate, scaly at base (6-)20-25 cm long; blade 3.5-9 cm wide, once-pinnate with pinnatifid non-proliferous apex, glabrous throughout; rachis green, very narrowly alate (0.1-0.3 mm wide), wing often extending down stipe, glabrous; pinnae 8-14 pairs, shortly petiolulate (1.5-2 mm long), strongly acuminate, the auricle directed across the rachis, strongly oblique at base, 18-40 mm long, 7-15 mm wide, tip acuminate to obtuse, coarsely toothed, crenate or bicrenate, 10-19 teeth on acroscopic margin, green, glabrous; veins obscure, simple or once-forked, hydathodes present; sori 4-6 pairs per pinna; indusium 5-6 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, entire or with scarious fringe.

  • Discussion

    Type. Brazil. Minas Gerais, Freyreis s.n. (S; isotypes BM, BR). Asplenium hastatum Klotzsch ex Kunze, Linnaea 23: 235, 305. 1850. Type. Cult, plant in Leipzig originally sent from Venezuela by Karsten (LZ, destroyed; B designated as holotype by Morton & Lellinger, 1966: 21). Asplenium pimpinellifolium Fée & Schaffner ex Fée, Mém. foug. 7: 52, t. 25, f. 5. 1857. Type. Mexico. [Veracruz:] Huatusco, 1854, Schaffner 50 (P!; isotype K!). This species is extremely variable: the pinnae are slender to broad, apices long-acuminate to obtuse, fronds long to short, thin to fleshy, small to large. It has mostly vegetative propagation by root buds, so populations are nearly uniform. Because of this variation, Asplenium auriculatum is considered here in a broad sense and A. hastatum included in it. The latter differs from A. auriculatum s.s. on the basis of larger pinnae and broader wings (see Morton & Lellinger, 1966). Closely related is the less common A. salicifolium, from which it differs by the smaller frond, smaller pinnae, once-forked veins, fewer acro-scopic teeth (10-19) and fewer pairs of sori (46).

  • Distribution

    Epiphytic, epipetric or terrestrial in wet forests; Choapan, Cuicatlán, Ixtlán, Mixe, Tehuantepec, Teotitlán, Villa Alta; 400-2000 m. Mexico (Jal, Gro, Ver, Pue, Oax, Chis); Guat to Pan; WI, Trin; Ven, Guy, Col, s to Bol & Braz.

    Mexico North America| Brazil South America| Bolivia South America| Colombia South America| Guyana South America| Venezuela South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| West Indies| Panama Central America| Guatemala Central America|