Asplenium sessilifolium Desv.
-
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 erect, 3-5 mm thick, at apex bearing a tuft of lustrous blackish-gray, narrowly brownmarginate, densely clathrate, narrowly deltateacuminate scales 2-4 mm long. Fronds ca, 15 or more per plant, densely clustered, ascending to erect, 30-55 cm long; stipes 6-14 cm long, brown, narrowly 2-marginate adaxially. Blades narrowly elliptic or almost linear, 2-pinnate throughout except toward apex, up to 45 cm long, 4-6.5 cm broad near the middle, tapering about equally both ways; rhachis lustrous brown, narrowly green-winged adaxially, the wings narrowly separated by a slender rounded ridge; pinnae up to 35 pairs, sessile, the proximal ones often reduced to mere auricles, the middle ones narrowly deltate-falcate, 2-3.2 cm long, obtuse at apex, 0.7-1.5 cm broad at the acroscopically expanded base; pinnules close to slightly overlapping, oblong to obdeltate, coarsely toothed at apex, the basiscopic ones often somewhat incurved; veins 1-3-forked; tissue dark green, thin-herbaceous but firm. Sori linear, mostly 1-4 mm long, apparently none diplazioid; indusium brownish-subhyaline, the free margin entire.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and continental tropical America from Guatemala to Peru and Bolivia. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Two collections known from widely separated localities. Las Piedras: Type of A. pseuderectum var. dissectum, cited above, collected 30 Oct 1886. San German: Maricao State Forest, Barrio Cain Alto, mountain slopes above headwaters of Rio Cain, 650-800 m, 9 Jul 1986, Proctor 41899 (IJ, SJ, US). Habitat. The single m o d e m collection was growing in shaded humus near the top ofa steep, forested ridge. In the same habitat (and in near proximity) were also found Asplenium ocoense and A. rhomboidale.
-
Discussion
Type. Ex Herb. Besvaux, from "America aequinoctiale" (P, photo US).
Syn. Asplenium pseuderectum var. dissectum Hieronymus, Hedwigia 60: 240, 1918, (Type, Sintenis 5457, from Sierra de Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, B (not seen); isotype NY.)
This species was overlooked by Maxon in his treatment of Puerto Rican fems (1926), and might also have been omitted from the present book had not fresh material come to light nearly a full century after Sintenis originally found it.