Lomariopsis

  • Authority

    Mickel, John T. & Smith, Alan R. 2004. The pteridophytes of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 88: 1-1054.

  • Family

    Lomariopsidaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Lomariopsis

  • Description

    Genus Description - Hemiepiphytic; rhizomes long-creeping, dorsiventral, climbing, scaly; fronds holodimorphic; stipes scaly; sterile blades 1- pinnate, terminal pinna conform (ours) or abortive with articulate lateral pinna acting as false terminal pinna; pinnae articulate; rachises alate or not; juvenile fronds with more deeply toothed pinnae (rachises more broadly alate); veins free, simple to forking; fertile blades much constricted, laminar tissue greatly reduced, pinnae linear, articulate, stalked or not; sori acrostichoid, exindusiate; spores bilateral, with broadly and irregularly winged, long-spinulose perispore; x =41 (lower nos. known in some African spp.).

  • Discussion

    Lectotype (chosen by Holttum, Gard. Bull. Straits Settlem., ser. 3, 5: 264. 1932): Lomariopsis cochinchinensis Fe´e.

    Lomariopsis is a pantropical genus of nearly 40 species, with about 15 in the American tropics (Moran, 2000). The genus is uncommon in Mexico, where it is found primarily in lowland Atlantic slopes. Three Mexican species are known, and a fourth, L. japurensis (Mart.) J. Sm., is to be expected, as it occurs from Guatemala and Belize to Bolivia, the Guianas, and Brazil. Lomariopsis japurensis differs from congeners in Mexico by the broader sterile pinnae, 3.5–6 cm wide, the generally fewer pinna pairs (5–14), and the ferrugineous rhizome apex and stipe base scales. Affinities of Lomariopsis are generally with the dryopteroid ferns, but some systematists (e.g., Kramer in Kubitzki, 1990; Moran in Davidse et al., 1995; Moran, 2000) have treated Lomariopsis in a family Lomariopsidaceae, along with Elaphoglossum and Bolbitis. Unpublished molecular data indicate that such a family is polyphyletic, and that the affinities of Lomariopsis may instead be with Cyclopeltis; the relationships of Elaphoglossum, Bolbitis, and other genera often treated in Lomariopsidaceae appear to lie elsewhere in the dryopteroid assemblage (Cranfill, pers. comm.). Lomariopsis is distinct by its hemiepiphytic habit, dimorphic fronds, free veins, and acrostichoid sporangia. Plants begin life on the ground and climb trees, where greater light intensity towards the canopy seems to trigger the production of fertile fronds.