Acrostichum
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Pteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Large, coarse fems chiefly of brackish or saline swamps at sea-level, rarely in fresh-water swamps at low to middle elevations. Rhizomes woody, stout, erect or decumbent-ascending, bearing thick, spongy roots and with broad scales at the apex. Fronds clustered, erect, monomorphic or dimorphic, stipitate, the blades 1-pinnate with large simple pinnae; veins closely reticulate without included free veinlets. Sporangia and paraphyses densely covering abaxial surface of fertile pinnae; indusium lacking; sporangia with annulus of 20-22 cells; spores tetrahedral-globose, trilete, the surface papillate with numerous minute diflfuse rods or strands.
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Discussion
Type Species. Acrostichum aureum Linnaeus, of pantropical distribution.
A small pantropical genus of several species; two of these occur in Puerto Rico. The generic name is derived from the Greek akros, summit + stichos, row, referring to fact that the sori are borne only on the terminal pinnae in the type species.
Special Literature. Tryon, R. M. & A. F. Tryon. 1982. Fems and allied plants, pp. 348-354, 13 figs. (Note: Tryon & Tryon's fig. I, labelled Acrostichum aureum, actually represents A. danaeifolium.)