Acrostichum danaeifolium Langsd. & Fisch.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Pteridaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Acrostichum danaeifolium Langsd. & Fisch.

  • Description

    Species Description - Terrestrial fern 0.5-1.5(-3.5) m tall. Rhizomes massive, clothed at the apex with rigid, spreading, linear or narrowly lanceolate, light- to dark-brown scales to 2 cm long. Fronds erect, dimorphic, the sterile ones 1.5-3.5 m long, the fertile ones taller and more rigidly erect; stipes very stout and subwoody, grooved along upper surface, usually dark brown, clothed at base with broadly linear, bicolorous scales, 2.5 x 0.3 cm. Pinnae very numerous, usually 20-40 pairs or more and a similar terminal one, both the sterile and fertile ones often crowded and subimbricate, often finely pubescent beneath, the margins lightly repandcartilaginous; sterile pinnae chartaceous, the fertile pinnae rather fleshy in texture.

  • Discussion

    Chrysodium lomarioides Jenman, Timehri 4: 314. 1885. Acrostichum lomarioides (Jenman) Jenman, Bull. Bot. Dept., n.s. 5: 154. 1898, n o m . illegit., non A. lomarioides Bory, 1833. Acrostichum excelsum Maxon, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 18: 224. 1905 (based on Chrysodium lomarioides Jenman).

  • Distribution

    Occasional in intermittent ravines. Battery Gut (A4163). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; widespread in tropical and subtropical America.

    Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America|