Dennstaedtia
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Authority
Proctor, George R. 1989. Ferns of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 53: 1-389.
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Family
Dennstaedtiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Mostly large to very large tenestrial fems of moist gullies, thickets, glades, and wet forests. Rhizome slender, long-creeping, densely pubescent with pluricellular hairs. Fronds distantly attached at forks in the rhizome, long-stipitate, monomorphic, glabrous to pubescent, always lacking scales; stipes not articulate. Blades deltate, 1- to 4-pinnately dissected, with anadromous venation, the veins all free. Sori marginal, separate, terminal on single veins abaxially, in most species borne in or near the sinus between two adjacent lobes or segments; indusium adnate to the lateral margins of a minute, modified frond lobule, together forming a cup-shaped or slightly bivalvate soral pouch opening outward, this often deflexed; paraphyses usually lacking; spores tetrahedral-globose, trilete, prominently lobed, the surface vermcate-tuberculate, reticulate, or ridged.
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Discussion
Type Species. Dennstaedtia flaccida (Forster) Bemhardi, based on Trichomanes flaccidum Forster.
A worldwide genus of more than 45 species, of which 4 have been recorded from Puerto Rico, none endemic. The genus was named in honor of August Wilhelm Dennstaedt (1776-1826), a German physician and botanist. Special Literature. Tryon, R. M. I960. A review the genus Dennstaedtia in America. Contr. Gray Herb. 187 23-52, t- 1-8; Tryon, R. M & A. F Tryon. 1982. Fems and allied plants, pp. 377-383, 75 HP^s.