Tectaria heracleifolia (Willd.) Underw.

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Tectariaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Tectaria heracleifolia (Willd.) Underw.

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome erect, woody, 7-11 mm thick, tightly invested with hard stipe bases, the apex bearing a small dense tuft of dark brown, narrowly lanceattenuate, hair-pointed scales 2-5 mm long. Fronds few, clustered, spreading, 30-115 cm long; stipes grooved adaxially, longer than the blades (up to 66 cm long), sparsely scaly toward base. Blades deltate-ovate, 15-30(-45) cm long, 15-25(-35) cm broad, more or less pentagonal in outline, pinnately 3-foliate or sometimes with two pairs of lateral pinnae; basal pinnae the largest, stalked, usually deeply 2- to 3-lobed, with the terminal lobe largest, all elongate and often coarsely crenate-dentate or incised; terminal pinna deltate, pinnately cleft, and with a pair of long-acuminate, oblique basal lobes; tissue firmly papery, glabrous, the venation completely reticulate, many of the areoles with one or more included free veinlets. Sori biseriate along the costules, 2-3.5 mm in diam.; indusium minutely glandular-pubemlous, persistent.

  • Discussion

    Basionym. Aspidium heracleifolium Willdenow in Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 5: 217. 1810, excl. ref. Philippine Islands.

    Lectotype. Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 147, based on a plant from Hispaniola.

    Syn. Aspidium trifoliatum of Hooker & Bauer, Gen. hl.,t. 33. 1840, not Sw., 1802.

    Bathmium heracleifolium (Willdenow) Fee, Mem. foug. 5:287. 1852.

    Aspidium trifoliatum var. heracleifolium (Willdenow) Husnot, Cat. crypt. Antill. frang. 41. 1870.

    Tectaria trifoliata var. heracleifolia (Willdenow) Farwell, Amer. Midi. Naturalist 12: 261. 1931.

    Tectaria trifoliata of Millspaugh, Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. Ser. 3: 3. 1903, not Cavanilles, 1802.

  • Distribution

    General Distribution. Florida, Bahamas, Greater and Lesser Antilles, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Peru and Venezuela.

    United States of America North America| Bahamas South America| West Indies| Mexico North America| Central America| Venezuela South America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America|