Pecluma ptilodon var. caespitosum A.M.Evans

  • Authority

    Mickel, John T. & Beitel, Joseph M. 1988. Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 46: 1-580.

  • Family

    Polypodiaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Pecluma ptilodon var. caespitosum A.M.Evans

  • Description

    Variety Description - Rhizome short-creeping, 5-12 mm diam.; rhizome scales 2-3 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, reddish-brown with blackish tip, narrowly deltate, lustrous, comose, entire; fronds 30-105 cm long, clumped; stipe 1/15-1/7 the frond length, reddish-brown to black, with scattered to dense acicular hairs (1.0 mm long), ctenoid hairs conspicuous; rachis with scales inconspicuous, filiform; blade 8-18 cm wide, narrowly to ovate-deltate, reduced to auricles at base; pinnae 4-9 cm long, 6-8 mm wide, obtuse to acute, straight to subfalcate, equal at base or surcurrent, herbaceous to coriaceous, entire; upper laminar surface, margin and midrib with scattered, silvery acicular hairs (0.5-0.8 mm); lower laminar surface mostly glabrous with short hairs dense around sori in an oblong patch; veins free, l-3(-4)-forked; sori round or oblong, medial, with clavate, branched paraphyses (0.3 mm long); sporangia with setae 0.1 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Polypodium pectinatum (Linnaeus) var. caespitosum Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept. 4: 125. 1897. Polypodium ptilodon (Kunze) Price var. caespitosum (Jenman) A. M. Evans, Amer. Fern J. 58: 170. 1968. Type. Jamaica. Old England, Jenman s.n. (NY!). Pecluma ptilodon is unique in its oblong patch of erect hairs around the sorus. Var. caespitosa is the only variety of this species to occur in Middle America and the West Indies, the other three varieties being limited to South America.

  • Distribution

    Terrestrial, on fallen logs, or epipetric; Cuicatlán, Ixtlán, Mixe; 450-1200 m.

    Mexico North America|