Polypodium astrolepis Liebm.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Polypodiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Epiphytic fern. Rhizome slender, elongate, wide-creeping 0.5-1.8 mm thick, bearing numerous somewhat matted roots, and covered with appressed, round, peltate, blackish scales, these nearly concealed by stiff, brown clustered hairs ca. 0.5 mm long. Fronds close to distant; stipes nearly lacking to 2 cm long, slightly flattened, narrowly green -marginate. Blades linear, lance- linear, or oblanceolate, 6-24 x 0.7 -2cm, simple, narrowed or attenuate at both ends, the apex obtuse to acute; rachis minutely scaly, greenish along upper surface, purple-black beneathm the scales widely scattered, lacerate-stellate with dark centers; veins reticulate; areoles sometimes containing free veinlets; tissue opaque and hygroscopic. Sori uniseriate, narrowly oblong to linear, 2-10 X 1-2 mm , parallel to the rachis, approximately medial, occupying the distal third or half of the blade; paraphyses few, scale-like, soon deciduous.
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Distribution
Occasional in moist forest. Based on a visual record by G. R. Proctor. Also in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Tobago, Trinidad, and continental tropical America from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil.
Brazil South America| Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Bolivia South America| México Mexico North America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| Trinidad and Tobago South America| West Indies|