Asplenium feei Kunze

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Aspleniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asplenium feei Kunze

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome erect, rather massive and succulent, up to 10 cm long, the broad exposed apex densely clothed with brownish, clathrate, lance-attenuate scales 5-9 mm long, these with distantly lacerateciliate margins. Fronds numerous, closely clustered, suberect, 45-90 cm long; stipes about half as long as the blades, dark brown, deciduously fibrillose-scaly. Blades oblong or linear-oblong, 30-60 cm long, 12-25 cm broad, subtmncate at base, at apex ending abruptly in a terminal pinna; rhachis very narrowly winged and bearing arachnoid-filiform scales chiefly at or near axils of pinnae; pinnae 6-17 pairs, obliquely spreading, short-stalked, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 6-14 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm broad, attenuate or subcaudate at apex, inequilateral at base, the margins lightly crenate-senate to bisenate; veins 1- to 2-forked. Sori 6-20 pairs, oblong to elliptic, 3-5 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide, inframedial, distant; indusium broad, firm.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater Antilles except Jamaica, continental tropical America from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil, and the Galapagos Islands. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Occurs at widely scattered localities in the Siena de Luquillo and Cordillera Central; recorded from Adjuntas, Barranquitas, Jayuya, Maricao, Penuelas, Ponce, Rio Grande, and Utuado. Habitat. On mossy tree-trunks and shaded boulders in wet montane forests at middle to high elevations (500-1070 m), rare or uncommon.

  • Discussion

    Type. Galeotti, s.n., from Mexico (LZ, destroyed; Fee's figure well represents the species).

    Syn. Asplenium nigrescens J. D. Hooker, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 20: 170. 1847, not Blume, 1828. (Type. Barwin, from James I., Galapagos Islands, K.)

    Asplenium sanguinolentum Kunze ex Mettenius, Abh. Senckenberg. Naturf. Ges. 3: 142, t. 4, fig. 10. 1858. (Lectotype. Beyrich, from Brazil, L, photo US.)

    Asplenium nubilum Moore, Index fil. 150, 1859, (A new name for A. nigrescens J. D. Hooker not Blume.)

    Asplenium stenocarpon Fee, Crypt, vase. Bresil 1: 64,1.19, fig I. 1869. (Type. Glaziou 1772, from Brazil, P, photo US.)

    Asplenium sarcodes Maxon, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 10: 494, t. 56, fig. 3. 1908. (Type. Maxon 4390, from Farallones de la Perla, N of Jaguey, Oriente, Cuba, US.)

    Asplenium anisophyllum var. sanguinolentum (Kunze) Hieronymus, Hedwigia 47: 226. 1908.