Danaea nodosa (L.) 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
Marattiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizomes horizontal, short-creeping, green, 10–12 cm diam.; rhizome scales brown; fronds to 2 m tall, 27–40 cm wide; stipes ca. 1/2 the frond length, brown to olive-brown, with sparse, brown, appressed scales; blades pinnate, pinnae 7–11 pairs, sterile ones 14–34 x 3–4.5 cm, narrowly elliptic, slightly falcate, margins subentire or sometimes undulate, faintly serrulate near apices, bases unequally rounded or cuneate, caudate with abruptly longattenuate, undulate tips; laminae coriaceous, with minute brown blade scales, these denser along costae; veins simple or 1-forked, 11–15/cm; fertile pinnae similar in shape to sterile but narrower, to 26 x 2 cm; synangia 150–200 per pinna; 2n=160 (Trin).
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Discussion
Acrostichum nodosum L., Sp. Pl. 2: 1070. 1753. Lectotype (chosen by Proctor, Fl. L. Antill. 2: 47. 1977). Plumier, Traite´ Foug. Ame´r., pl. 108, 1705, illustrating a plant from Martinique or Haiti.
This is the largest of the Danaea species in Mexico, and, ironically, most easily distinguished by the lack of nodes on the stipe.
Unplaced Names Danaea elata Liebm., Mexic. Bregn. 306 (reprint 154). 1849. Type. Mexico. Veracruz: Barranca de la Hacienda de Jovo, Liebmann s.n. [Pl. Mex. 2199, Fl. Mex. 848] (C!). Danaea media Liebm., Mexic. Bregn. 306 (reprint 154). 1849. Syntypes. Mexico. Veracruz: Barranca de la Hacienda de Jovo, Liebmann s.n. [Pl. Mex. 2185, Fl. Mex. 653, 654, 849, and 850] (C!). Tuomisto and Christenhusz (Univ. Turku, Finland) are currently studying the systematics of Danaea and have recently concluded (in litt.) that D. elata and D. media, variously treated by several authors (e.g., Underwood, 1909; Smith, 1981; Mickel & Beitel, 1988; Lellinger, 1989; Camus & Pe´rez-Garci´a in Davidse et al, 1995), apply to the same taxon. Tuomisto and Christenhusz believe that this taxon is distinct from the widespread and polymorphic D. nodosa, a name that has been applied to Mexican material with large fronds and nodeless stipes. The types of both D. elata and D. media were collected at the same locality, and it appears likely that D. media is simply a juvenile of D. elata. They were probably described under different names (in the same publication, with a mention that they grow together) because D. media has nodes on the stipes (at least one of the syntypes, possibly a juvenile; see Smith, 1981), whereas D. elata does not. That juveniles often have nodes but adults more often do not is a characteristic shared with populations of D. media elsewhere in Central America. Typical D. nodosa, type from Martinique, does not have nodes on the stipe, even when juvenile, and it also differs from Mexican and Central American material in pinna shape and much bulkier rhizomes. Tuomisto and Christenhusz tentatively plan to use the name D. media for Mexican and Central American plants previously called D. nodosa.