Lomariopsis
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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
Lomariopsidaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Medium-sized scandent fems. Rhizomes elongate (to 15 m), dorsiventral, climbing on tree-trunks or sometimes over rocks, clothed with mostly denticulate or ciliate scales. Fronds short-stipitate; blades 1-pinnate with entire pinnae, completely dimorphic; lateral pinnae articulate to the rhachis and eventually deciduous, the rhachis usually ending in a non-articulate terminal pinna, or sometimes this pinna lacking or aborted and the ultimate lateral pinna appearing to be terminal; veins free, numerous, simple or forked, usually ending at the cartilaginous margina; tissue naked or sometimes bearing minute substellate scales. Fertile fronds with greatly contracted pinnae, these completely covered by sporangia on abaxial side except for a thin, membranous border; indusium and paraphyses lacking; sporangial stalks commonly of three rows of cells, the annulus of 12-22 cells; spores ellipsoid, monolete, with prominent, winglike, erose projections, the surface otherwise minutely rugose or prominently echinate.
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Discussion
Type Species. Lomariopsis sorbifolia (Linnaeus) Fee, based on Acrostichum sorbifolium Linnaeus, of the West Indies.
Syn. Stenochlaena of Maxon, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico & Virgin Is. 6: 457. 1926, not J. Smith, 1841
A pantropical genus of about 45 species, 15 in the American tropics, and three recorded from Puerto Rico, none endemic. The generic name is derived from the generic name Lomaria (from Greek loma, border + sufl[ix aris) + opsis, like, from the resemblance of these plants to Lomaria (now a subgenus of Blechnum).
Special Literature. Underwood, L. M . 1907. The American species of Stenochlaena. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 33: 591-605; Tryon, R. M . & A. F. Tryon. 1982. Ferns and allied plants, pp. 607-612, 14 figs.