Blechnum

  • Authority

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

  • Family

    Blechnaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Blechnum

  • Description

    Genus Description - Terrestrial or occasionally epiphytic, small to medium-sized ferns. Rhizomes ascending to erect, sometimes trunklike, or more or less elongate and scandent, usually densely clothed with scales, sometimes stoloniferous. Fronds mostly 1-pinnate or rarely simple, usually glabrous, monomorphic or dimorphic with the divisions of the fertile fronds strongly contracted; veins usually free except for the fertile veinlets. Sori elongate-linear, usually continuous, borne near or against the midvein or on an elongate transverse veinlet parallel to the midvein; indusium narrowly linear, continuous or nearly so, firm, opening toward the midvein; paraphyses absent; sporangia with annulus of 14-28 cells; spores ellipsoid, monolete, the surface nearly smooth to papillate, occasionally with minute spherical granules.

  • Distribution

    A worldwide genus of perhaps 180 species, the majority occurring in the Southern Hemisphere

    Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America|