Ctenitis ursina A.R.Sm.
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Authority
Mickel, John T. & Smith, Alan R. 2004. The pteridophytes of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 88: 1-1054.
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Family
Dryopteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizomes not known, but probably suberect, stout; fronds large, to ca. 130 cm long or more; stipes tan, 1/3–1/2 the frond length, to ca. 50+ x 1 cm, bases and also distal part very densely covered with spreading, lustrous, brown, lanceolate scales to 10 x 1 mm; blades dark green, 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, broadly deltate, to 75 x 70 cm; rachises abaxially with scales similar to those of stipes, but smaller and lighter colored; pinnae ca. 10–12 pairs, proximal ones stalked 1 cm, to ca. 37 x 13 cm, equilateral, with pinnules to ca. 20 pairs per pinna, to 6 x 1.5 cm, adnate and increasingly decurrent towards pinna apices, slightly reduced at pinna bases; segments entire to deeply serrate, tips acute, margins eciliate; veins mostly simple, ending before the margins; indument on costae and costules abaxially of scales similar to those of rachises, but smaller and less dense; laminae between veins glabrous on both sides; sori medial, indusiate, indusia persistent, tan with slightly darker centers, erose to glandular-ciliate on margins.
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Discussion
Type. Mexico. Chiapas: Mpio. La Trinitaria, E of Lago Tziscao, Monte Bello National Park, Breedlove 32274 (DS!-2 sheets).
This is closely related to C. melanosticta, differing by the densely scaly stipes and by the less distinctly bicolored indusia.
Unplaced Names Phegopteris inaequalis Fe´e, Me´m. Foug. 8: 91. 1857. Syntypes. Mexico. [Veracruz:] Huatusco, Schaffner 240, 241a; Totutla, Schaffner 241b (RB, cited by Windisch, 1982)
This is said by Fe´e to be arborescent with a spiny trunk; Fournier (1872) treated it as a synonym of Ctenitis equestris. Christensen (1920: 125) regarded it as of uncertain identity, perhaps a species of Alsophila. Aspidium obtusilobum Fe´e, Me´m. Foug. 8: 105. 1857, hom. illeg., non Willd., 1810. Dryopteris huatuscensis C. Chr., Index Filic. 271. 1905. Type. Mexico. Veracruz: Huatusco, Schaffner 105 (P?); Smith (1981: 84) cited a possible authentic specimen, Schaffner s.n. (P!), without locality data. This name was treated by Smith (1981) and also by Mickel and Beitel (1988) as a synonym of Ctenitis submarginalis, but the holotype has apparently not been seen by anyone in the last century. It is also possible that the name is a synonym of C. microchlaena, a species not recognized in the earlier floristic accounts for Chiapas and Oaxaca.
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Distribution
Terrestrial in montane rain forests; 1300 m. Mexico.
Mexico North America|