Grammitis asplenifolia (L.) Proctor
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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 short-creeping or ascending, at apex bearing numerous lustrous, pale orange-brown, narrowly deltate to oblong or lance-ligulate scales mostly 1.5-2.5(-4) mm long, these with relatively broad, turgid cells having delicate walls and nearly transparent lumen, and beset with numerous long, spreading, orange setae on margins and both sides. Fronds 20-60 cm long, longstipitate; stipes 4-25 cm long, usually decurved or somewhat geniculate near the apex, densely pilose with spreading pale hairs up to 2 mm long. Blades drooping or pendent, linear-lanceolate, 2.3-5.5 cm broad, deeply pinnatisect, gradually narrowed to an acute apex, truncate at base; rhachis black, provided with numerous long reddish setae on both sides but more abundant adaxially; similar hairs numerous along margins, few along costae, but absent from tissue surface; segments mostly 20-40 pairs, altemate, close, narrowly deltate-oblong, the largest ones 5-10 mm wide at the slightly dilated base; costae evident, flexuous, the simple veins ending in small adaxial hydathodes near the margins; fertile veins with a slight bend about 2/3 of the distance from the costa, the sorus arising at this bend. Sori round, about medial, up to 11 pairs per segment; sporangia copiously setulose.
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Discussion
Basionym. Polypodium asplenifolium Linnaeus, Sp. pL 2: 1084. 1753, excL B.
Type. Petiver, Pter. Amer., t. 7, fig. 16, copied from Plumier, Traite foug. Amer., t. 102, fig. A, in tum based on material from M o m e de la Calebasse, Martinique.
Syn. Polypodium suspensum var. asplenifolium (Linnaeus) Krug, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 127. 1897.
Polypodium suspensum of Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept. Jamaica n.s. 4: 122. 1897; Fems Brit. W. Ind. 269. 1908, not Linnaeus, 1753.
Ctenopteris asplenifolia (Linnaeus) Copeland, Gen. fil. 219. 1947.
Ctenopteris suspensa of Copeland, Philipp. J. Sci. 84: 443. 1955 (1956), not Polypodium suspensum hinnaeus, 1753.
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Distribution
General Distribution. Greater and Lesser antilles, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from southem Mexico to Peru and Bolivia. Populations Hsted under this name are not all cytologically homogeneous and form a complex that would repay further investigation.
West Indies| Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Bolivia South America|