Asplenium abscissum Willd.
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Aspleniaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizome erect or ascending, 4-6 mm thick, the apex bearing a small tuft of dark brown, clathrate, rigid, narrowly deltate-acuminate scales 1-2 mm long. Fronds few, clustered, ascending, 15-40 cm long; stipes about as long as the blades, brown, narrowly greenish-marginate. Blades narrowly to broadly deltate-oblong or ovate-oblong, 5-14(-16) cm broad, widest at or near base, acuminate to subcaudate at apex; rhachis like the stipe; pinnae rather few, 5-9(-12) pairs, altemate or subopposite, trapeziform-oblong to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 8-18 mm broad, subsessile, inequilateral at base but not or only slightly auriculate, acutish to attenuate at apex, the margins doubly or triply dentate-senate; veins subarcuate, oblique, mostly 1- to 3-forked; tissue light green, thinly herbaceous, glabrate. Sori inframedial, up to 12 pairs or more, 2-9 mm long; indusium brownish, the margin entire.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Florida, Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Brazil and Bolivia. Distribution in Puerto Rico. O f wide but scattered occunence; recorded from Arecibo, Ciales, Hatillo, Las Marias, Maricao, Rio Grande, Utuado, and Vega Alta. Habitat. Shaded rocky slopes, mossy ledges, moist ravines and sinkholes, and sometimes in shaded humus among limestone or other rocks, at low to high elevations (40-950 m), locally frequent or common.
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Discussion
Lectotype. Bredemeyer, from Caracas, Venezuela (Herb. Willd. 19893, sheet I (excl. fragm.), B).
Syn. Asplenium firmum Kunze, Bot, Zeitung (Berhn) 3: 283. 1845. (Lectotype. Moritz s.n., from Colombia, B, photo US.)
Asplenium abscissum var. firmum (Kunze) Hieronymus, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 34: 462. 1904.