Diplazium striatum (L.) C.Presl

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Athyriaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Diplazium striatum (L.) C.Presl

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome erect, subwoody, to 15 mm thick or more (excluding stipe bases), 5-30 cm long, the apex bearing numerous ovate to lance-attenuate, dark brown scales to 10 mm long or more, 2-3 mm wide, with entire margins. Fronds 1-2 m long; stipes mostly shorter than the blades, brownish, grooved adaxially, scaly toward base, the scales dark brown, lanceolate, up to 15 mm long. Blades 1-pinnate-pinnatifid (to fully 2-pinnate at base of larger pinnae of robust plants), narrowly to broadly lanceolate or lance-oblong, 15-40 cm broad or more, gradually acuminate at apex, slightly reduced toward base; pinnae 15-25 pairs, the majority short-stalked, narrowly oblong-acuminate, 2.5-6 cm broad, deeply and evenly pinnatifid; segments close, oblong, cut 1/2 to 3/4 to the costa, usually 5-9 mm broad near base, the apex rounded, tmncate, or acutish and subfalcate, the margins nearly entire to distantly crenulate-sermlate, the sinuses acute; veins ca. ten pairs per segments, simple or 1- to 2-forked; vascular parts and tissue minutely pubemlous throughout abaxially with tiny, mostly whitish pluricellular hairs. Sori basal on veins, 1.5-4 mm long, only the proximal of each segment diplazioid; indusium light brown, thin, delicately subclathrate, the margin inegularly erose and distantly ciliate.

    Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Venezuela and Peru. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Widely distributed through much of the island; recorded from Arecibo, Barranquitas, Cayey, Corozal, Isabela, Maricao, Naguabo, Quebradillas, Rio Grande, Utuado, and Yabucoa. Habitat. Moist shaded ravines, sinkholes, and wooded hillsides at middle to upper middle elevations (200-840 m), frequent or locally common.

  • Discussion

    Basionym. Asplenium striatum Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 2: 1082. 1753.

    Type. Petiver, Pter. Amer., t. 3, figs. 3, 4, copied from Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 18, 19, based on material from "les bois de la Cabstene," Martinique.

    Syn. Biplazium truncatum K. Presl, Tent, pterid. 114. 1836, nomen nudum, based on material from Grenada.

    Biplazium crenulatum Liebmann, Kongel. Danske Vidensk.-Selsk. Skr. ser. 5, 1: 254. 1849, (Lectotype, Liebmann s.n., from Veracruz, Mexico, US, isolectotype C, photo US, chosen by Lellinger, 1977).

    Asplenium crenulatum (Liebmann) Baker in Hooker & Baker, Syn. fil. 236. 1867, not K. Presl, 1836, nor Baker in Hooker & Baker, op. cit. 224.

    Biplazium striatum var. truncatum Hieronymus, Hedwigia 59: 328. 1917. (Type. Besfontaines, from Grenada, Herb. Willd. 19920, B.)