Pteris plumula Desv.

  • 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

    Pteris plumula Desv.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome erect or ascending, woody, densely clothed at apex with narrowly lance-linear scales to 5 mm long, these dark reddish-brown with narrow, pale roughish margins. Fronds densely clustered, suberect to spreading, up to 1.5 m long; stipes yellowish-brown or straw-colored, often equalling or exceeding the blades, grooved adaxially, naked except at extreme base, there loosely clothed with spreading scales like those of rhizome. Blades broadly oblong or ovate, 1-pinnate- pinnatisect, up to 50 cm broad, the basal pinnae 2-partite or occasionally with two elongate basiscopic pinnules on each pinna; rhachis naked and glabrous except for minute hard papillae in the adaxial groove at pinna-axils; pinnae stalked or subsessile, all but the basal pair narrowly deltate-oblong to broadly linear-oblong, acuminate or often caudate at apex, essentially truncate at base, slightly asymmetric, usually being slightly wider, with longer segments, on the basiscopic side; segments linear to oblong, 1-3 cm long, 3-6 mm broad; costae sharply awned at base of costules, the costules with or without awns at base of veins; veins mostly 1-forked; tissue firmly herbaceous. Indusium pale, translucent, 0.5-0.7 mm wide, the margin entire.

  • Discussion

    Type. E x Herb. Desvaux (collector not stated), from "Antilles" (P, photo G H ) . The epithet ''plumula'' is a nom. nov. for P. pectinata Desvaux not Cavanilles.

    Syn. Pteris pectinata Desvaux, Ges. Naturf Freunde Beriin Mag. 5: 324. 1811, not Cavanilles, 1802. (Type. As cited under P plumula.)

    Pteris felosma J. Smith, Companion Bot, Mag. 72: 24. 1846. (Type. A specimen cultivated at Kew, originating from Jamaica, K; isotype BM, photo G H ; also L, photo US.)

    Pteris quadriaurita of many authors, not Retzius, 1791.

    (Other synonymy omitted.)

    This species is often known as ''Pteris quadriaurita Retz.," but this name is properly applied only to a diploid plant of Ceylon and southem India (Walker, 1960), not the same as the apogamous triploid population of the West Indies.

    Greater and Lesser Antilles, and perhaps throughout continental tropical America; however, it is not known if all these populations are cytologically homogeneous. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Apparently occurs only in the central to west-central part of the island; recorded from Lares, Maricao, Peñuelas, Salinas, and Yauco. Habitat. Moist thickets, glades, ravines and shady banks, sometimes on the rocky banks of streams, at middle to upper middle elevations (280-850 m), uncommon.

  • Distribution

    Puerto Rico South America| Lares Puerto Rico South America| Maricao Puerto Rico South America| Salinas Puerto Rico South America| Yauco Puerto Rico South America|