Notholaena standleyi Maxon

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Pteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Notholaena standleyi Maxon

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizomes compact, horizontal, 1-1.5 mm diam.; rhizome scales lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, bicolorous with broad dark brown to black, sclerotic, lustrous central streak and pale entire margins; fronds 9-23 cm long, clumped; stipes ca. 3/4 the frond length, castaneous, terete, lustrous, glabrous except for a few broadly lanceolate scales at bases (2 x 1 mm); blades broadly pentagonal, 2.5-7 cm wide, pinnatifid above basal pinnae, with the suprabasal pinnae usually shortened, basal pinnae pinnatifid with one basiscopically exaggerated pinnatifid basal pinnule; adaxial surfaces glabrous; abaxial surfaces densely pale yellow-to deep yellow-farinose; laminar margins slightly curved; sporangia 32- or 16-spored; spores tan to black; 2n =60 (Oax, USA).

  • Discussion

    Type. U.S.A. Texas: w Texas to El Paso, New Mexico, Wright 821 (YU; isotypes K!, US!).

    Notholaena candida (M. Martens & Galeotti) Hook. var. quinquifidopalmata Hook., Sp. Fil. 5: 111. 1864. Notholaena hookeri D. C. Eaton in Wheeler, Rept. U.S. Geogr. Surv. W. 100th Merid. 6: 308, t. 30. 1879, nom. et stat. nov., hom. illeg., non Lowe, 1856. Chrysochosma hookeri Ku¨mmerle, Magyar Bot. Lapok 13: 40-41. 1914, nom. nov. Cheilanthes hookeri (Ku¨mmerle) Domin, Biblioth. Bot. 20(85): 133. 1915. Notholaena sulphurea (Cav.) J. Sm. var. quinquifidopalmata (Hook.) Farw., Amer. Midl. Naturalist 12: 284. 1931. Type. U.S.A. New Mexico: La Cuesta, Bigelow s.n. (K, photo GH).

    The farina varies in color geographically. In Sonora, Chihuahua, and part of Coahuila the farina is very pale yellow, to nearly white in some Chihuahuan specimens. In part of Coahuila and in San Luis Potosi´, the farina is deep yellow, and in Puebla and Oaxaca pale yellow. Windham (in FNA Ed. Comm., 1993) reported that the low number of spores per sporangium in N. standleyi is apparently not associated with apogamy since all plants analyzed were sexual diploids. Siegler andWollenweber (1983) identified three chemotypes in this species; these correlate with substrate specificity, range, and variations in farina color.