Asplenium heterochroum 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
-
Description
Species Description - Rhizome short, erect or ascending, at apex bearing a dense tuft of erect, blackish, densely clathrate, narrowly linear-attenuate scales 1.5-2 mm long. Fronds several or many, fasciculate, ascending, 6-18 cm long; stipes very short, lustrous black. Blades linear, 5-15 cm long, 1-1.8 cm broad, acute or acuminate at apex, narrowed toward base; rhachis lustrous black, narrowly 2-winged adaxially, the wings subclathrate, thin; pinnae 8-20 pairs, mostly opposite or nearly so, horizontal or slightly reflexed, sessile, obliquely oblong from a rectangular or broadly cuneate base, 5-9 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, rounded-obtuse at apex, the margins obtusely crenate-dentate; veins simple and oblique (except the forked basal acroscopic one); tissue dull green, subopaque. Sori inframedial, linear-oblong; indusium whitish, the margin inegular or slightly erose-dentate.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Northern peninsular Florida, Bermuda, and Greater Antilles except Jamaica. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Of scattered occunence along the northem side of the island west of San Juan, with a single disjunct locality in the southwest; recorded from Aguadilla, Arecibo, Bayamon, Cabo Rojo, Guaynabo, Quebradillas, and Toa Baja. Habitat. Crevices of shaded limestone ledges at low to lower middle elevations (50-200 m), rare or infrequent.
-
Discussion
Type. Poeppig s.n., from Cuba (LZ, destroyed; isotype L, photo US).
Syn. Asplenium muticum Gilbert, Amer. Bot. (Binghamton) 4: 86, 1903. (Type. Gilbert, from Bermuda, G H , photo US; paratype from Ocala, Horida, GH, photo US.)