Thelypteris hildae Proctor

  • Authority

    Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.

  • Family

    Thelypteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Thelypteris hildae Proctor

  • Description

    Species Description - Plants always in crevices of ledges or cliffs; rhizome short, erect or ascending, mostly 4-6 mm thick (excluding stipe bases), at apex bearing a tuft of lustrous brown, glabrate or sparingly and minutely stellate-puberulous scales, these chiefly deltate-attenuate, up to 6 mm long, and mostly 0.5-1 mm wide near base. Fronds few, monomorphic, loosely clustered, spreading, up to 50 cm long (usually much less); stipes straw-colored, (4-)9-18(-22) cm long (up to 45% of length of entire frond), 0.6-0.9(-1.2) mm thick, minutely stellate-puberulous or sometimes glabrous. Blades narrowly lance-deltate or occasionally lanceolate, 12-28(32) cm long, 2.5-4.5(-6.5) cm broad near base or below middle, truncate or very slightly narrowed at base, acuminate at apex, pinnatifid throughout (or sometimes a single pair of free pinnae, rarely more, at base) except toward the subentire apex; segments 15-22(-25) pairs, cut 1/2-2/3(3/4) to the rhachis with most acute sinuses, oblong to narrowly deltate, blunt to acute at apex, with 8-17 pairs of veins, the majority of these (except in very large plants) simple and free (or a few 1-forked, these rarely anastomosing), the proximal pair from adjacent segments usuallyjoined in the tissue and sending an excunent veinlet to the sinus; adaxial side of blade glabrous except for minute stellate hairs along the rhachis-groove, and sometimes a few on costae; abaxial side with rhachis minutely stellate-puberulous to glabrous, and with scattered minute stellate hairs on costae and veins, the tissue glabrous; margins likewise with a few stellate hairs especially at sinuses. Sori usually about medial, sometimes paired; moderately large indusium present, always minutely stellate-puberulous; sporangia glabrous.

  • Discussion

    Fig. 61.

    Type. Proctor 40100, from Rio Abajo State Forest, Puerto Rico (US; isotypes IJ, SJ).

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Endemic to Puerto Rico.

    Puerto Rico South America|