Vittaria lineata (L.) Sm.
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Authority
Mickel, John T. & Beitel, Joseph M. 1988. Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 46: 1-580.
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Family
Pteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Rhizome horizontal, compact, 1-1.5 mm diam.; rhizome scales clathrate, 6-7 mm long, 0.3-0.8 mm wide, uniform in size and cell wall thickness, apex narrowed to hairlike tip, two cells wide appearing as a single hair (the central wall between the two cells) for 1/3-½ the scale length, 3-6 cells wide at base; fronds to 40 cm long, 1-1.5(-3.0) mm wide at broadest part and at base, margin recurved; midrib evident abaxially only; paraphyses slender, curved slightly, filiform, 0.1 mm long, tan, the apical cell not enlarged; spores bilateral, clear, colorless.
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Discussion
Pteris lineata Linnaeus, Sp. pl. 2: 1073. 1753. Type. Plumier, Traité foug. Amér., t. 143. 1705, based on a plant from Hispaniola. Vittaria deppeana K. Müller, Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 1854: 547. 1854. Type. Mexico. [Veracruz:] Jalapa, Schiede 790 (B, frag. NY!; isotype NY!). Vittaria setacea Christ, Bull. Herb. Boissier II, 6: 47. 1906. Type. Costa Rica. Navarro, 1905, Wercklé s.n. (P; isotype NY!). This species is abundant in the West Indies (at low and medium elevations) and perhaps South America, but in Mexico and Central America, V. graminifolia and V. dimorpha are more common. No other species has bilateral spores, filiform paraphyses, and narrow fronds (less than 2 mm wide). Lellinger (1972) synonymizes V. deppeana under V. graminifolia, but the type has bilateral spores, whereas the type of V. bradeorum, which he synonymized under V. lineata, has tetrahedral spores and properly belongs under V. dimorpha (q.v.).
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Distribution
Epiphytic in wet forests at low to middle elevation; 50-500 m. Mexico (Ver, Chis, Tab); US (Fla); Guat to CR; WI, Trin; S Amer.
Mexico North America| South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| West Indies| Costa Rica South America| Guatemala Central America|