Asplenium harpeodes Kunze

  • Authority

    Morton, Conrad V. & Lellinger, David B. 1966. The Polypodiaceae subfamily Asplenioideae in Venezuela. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 15: 1-49.

  • Family

    Aspleniaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Asplenium harpeodes Kunze

  • Description

    Species Description - Rhizome short, epiphytic: fronds numerous, pendent, the stipes violet-brown, narrowly alate, often only one-tenth as long as the blades: blades simply pinnate, linear, up to 1 m long although usually somewhat shorter and 12 cm broad or more, with many pinnae (more than 30 pairs), the rhachis brownish, narrowly alate, not proliferous: pinnae horizontally spreading, lanceolate-falcate, long-acuminate and ascending at apex, cuneate at base, excised at the lower base, strongly toothed, the teeth (16) 20 or more on the upper margin, the margin itself somewhat thickened; veins all simple except the superior basal ones; sori numerous, linear, inframedial.

  • Discussion

    Asplenium jucundum Fee, Crypt. Vase. Bres. 1: 68. t. 17, f. 1. 1869. Type: Sao Luiz, Serra dos Orgaos, Brazil, Oct. 12, 1867, Glaziou 1768 (holotvpe P, photograph 4183) .

    Asplenium harpeodes var. jucundum (Fee) Hieron. Hedwigia 60: 235. 1918.

    Asplenium harpeodes var. major Hieron. Hedwigia 60: 237. 1918. Syntvpes: Caracas. Gollmer; Funck & Schlim 246; Mount Tolima, Colombia, Schmidtchen, Stuebel 18; between Tacuyo and Santo Domingo, near Mount Huila, Colombia, Stuebel 168.

    Syntypes. Mexico. Leibold 26;Caracas, Linden 197, and by inference Totutla. Veracruz. Mexico, Galeotti 6407 (since Kunze cites “A. falcatum" of Mart. & Gal. p. 58, although he may never have seen the material studied by Martens and Galeotti). Since the description occurs in a paper describing the Mexican collections of Leibold, the Leibold specimen is here designated as lectotype (Leibold 26, B, photographs 9298, 9299).

    This species is always epiphytic, occurring in cloud-forests at elevations between 1800 and 2300 m. The fronds are pendent and often elongate, and the pinnae are numerous and long-acuminate and falcate, characters that will separate the species from its near allies. Hieronymus has attempted to distinguish several varieties.