Adiantum villosum 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

    Adiantum villosum L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome creeping, subwoody, 4-6 mm thick, nodose, clothed at apex with dark brown, subclathrate, denticulate, narrowly deltate-attenuate scales 1.5-2.5 mm long. Fronds closely distichous, stifldy ascending, 50-85(-100) cm long; stipes lustrous purple-black, angulate, 35-55 cm long, 2-4 mm in diam. near base, deciduously clothed with brown, loosely appressed, narrowly linear scales, these laxly long-ciliate at base and denticulate-ciliate along margins. Blades ovate or (excluding the elongate terminal pinna) transversely oblong, 25-40 cm long, 25-50 cm broad, uniformly 2-pinnate; rhachis and costae more or less densely clothed with nanow ciliate or denticulate scales like those of stipe; lateral pinnae 2-6 pairs, altemate, spreading, lance-oblong to linear and up to 25 cm long; pinnules 1.5-2.5 (-4) cm long, 0.6-1 cm broad; sterile pinnules sharply bisenate; fertile pinnules more or less rhombic-oblong with abruptly acute or acuminate tips, quadrangular at base, almost dimidiate, a faint costule present near basiscopic side; tissue medium green, firmly herbaceous. Sori bome along acroscopic margin of pinnules and around the tip, normally continuous, or sometimes intermpted and arcuate; indusioid flap light brown, the margin erose.

  • Discussion

    Neotype. Sloane, vol. 1, p. 127, from nr. Spanish Town, Jamaica (BM-SL), designated by Proctor, 1977. Illustrated by Sloane, Nat. Hist. Jamaica 1: t. 55, fig. 1.

    Syn. Adiantum falcatum Swartz, J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800(2): 82. 1802. (Lectotype. Sloane, Nat. Hist. Jamaica 1: t. 55, fig. 1.)

    Greater and Lesser Antilles, and continental tropical America from Mexico to northem South America. Distribution in Puerto Rico. No specimen seen from the main island; recorded from Vieques. Virgin Islands. St. Croix and St. Thomas. Habitat. Shaded rocky banks and wooded hillsides at lower middle elevations (120-300 m), rare or locally frequent.

  • Distribution

    Greater and Lesser Antilles, and continental tropical America from Mexico to northem South America. Distribution in Puerto Rico. No specimen seen from the main island; recorded from Vieques. Virgin Islands. St. Croix and St. Thomas. Habitat. Shaded rocky banks and wooded hillsides at lower middle elevations (120-300 m), rare or locally frequent.

    México Mexico North America| Puerto Rico South America| Vieques Puerto Rico South America| Virgin Islands South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America|