Polypodium astrolepis Liebm.
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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
Polypodiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizome wide-creeping, 0.5-1.8 mm thick, bearing numerous somewhat matted roots, and covered with appressed, round, peltate, blackish scales, these nearly concealed by stiflf, brown, clustered hairs ca. 0.5 mm long. Fronds close to distant, subsessile or with stipes up to 2 cm long, these dark, slightly flattened, and narrowly greenmarginate. Blades linear, lance-linear, or oblanceolate, mostly 6-24 cm long, 0.7-2 cm broad near or above the middle, narrowed or attenuate at both ends, the apex obtuse to acute; rhachis greenish adaxially, purple-black beneath; both sides minutely scaly, the scales widely scattered, lacerate-stellate with dark centers; veins reticulate, a few ofthe areoles containing free veinlets; tissue opaque and hygroscopic. Sori narrowly oblong to linear, 2-10 mm long, 1-2 mm broad, parallel to the rhachis, approximately medial, occupying the distal third or half of the blade; paraphyses few, scale-like, soon deciduous.
Distribution and Ecology - General Distribution. Greater and Lesser Antilles, Tobago, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil. Distribution in Puerto Rico. Of wide occurrence; recorded from Adjuntas, Arecibo, Barranquitas, Caguas, Cayey, Gurabo, Isabela, Jayuya, Lares, Loiza, Naguabo, Quebradillas, San Lorenzo, Vega Alta, Yabucoa, and Yauco; to be expected in many other areas. Virgin Islands. St. John. Habitat. On trunks and branches of trees, occasionally on mossy rocks in moist or wet forests, and also on citms and cacao trees and coffee bushes, at low to high elevations (sea-level-1100 m), locally common.
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Discussion
Lectotype. Liebmann s.n., in 1841, from Trapiche de la Concepcion, Oaxaca, Mexico (GH, fragment).
Syn. Grammitis lanceolata Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew. 1: 9, t. 7. 1804, not Polypodium lanceolatum Linnaeus, 1753. (Type. Swartz, from Jamaica, not seen.)
Grammitis elongata Swartz, Syn. fil. 22, 213.1806, not Polypodium elongatum Aiton, 1789. (Based on G. lanceolata Schkuhr.)
Grammitis revoluta Sprengel ex Willdenow in Linnaeus, Sp. pl, 5: 139. 1810. (Type. Herb. Willd. 19584, B, from an unknown locality, received by Willdenow from Sprengel.)
Polypodium elongatum (Swartz) Mettenius, Abh. Senckenberg. Naturf Ges. Frankfurt 2: 88, t. 2, figs. 8, 9. 1857, not Aiton, 1789, not Schrader, 1818.
Gymnogramma elongata (Swartz) Hooker, Sp. fil. 5: 157. 1864.
Pleopeltis astrolepis (Liebmann) E. Foumier in Nylander & Bescherelle (eds.), Mex. Pl. 1: 87. 1872.
Taenitis swartzii Jenman, J. Bot. 17: 263. 1879. (Based on Grammitis elongata Swartz.)
Polypodium lanceolatum var. elongatum (Swartz) Krug, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 131. 1897.
Phlebodium astrolepis (Liebmann) Conzatti, R. Taxon. Mexico 1: 100. 1939.
Pleopeltis revoluta (Willdenow) A. R. Smith, Proc. Calif Acad. Sci. 40: 230. 1975.