Asplenium rhizophyllum
Asplenium bradleyi
doradille ambulante, walking fern, walking spleenwort
Bradley's spleenwort
not proliferous.
not proliferous.
erect or ascending, usually unbranched;
scales dark brown throughout, narrowly deltate, 2–3 × (0.2–)0.5–1 mm, margins entire.
short-creeping to ascending, occasionally branched;
scales dark reddish to brown throughout, narrowly deltate, (2–)3–5 × 0.2–0.4 mm, margins entire or shallowly dentate.
monomorphic but fertile leaves generally larger than sterile leaves.
monomorphic.
reddish brown at base, becoming green distally, dull but sometimes lustrous at base, 0.5–12 cm, 0.1–1.5 times length of blade;
indument of dark brown, narrowly deltate scales at base, of minute, club-shaped hairs distally.
reddish or purplish brown throughout, lustrous, 1–10(–13) cm, 1/3–3/4 length of blade;
indument of brown, narrowly lanceolate scales at base, grading into hairs.
highly variable in size and shape, even on 1 plant, narrowly deltate to linear-lanceolate, simple, 1–30 × 0.5–5 cm, leathery, sparsely pubescent, hairs more numerous abaxially than adaxially;
blade base cordate, auriculate, or occasionally hastate, auricles rarely attenuate and radicant;
margins entire to sinuate, rarely irregularly incised;
apex rounded to very long-attenuate and, if attenuate, generally rooting at tip.
narrowly oblong to lanceolate, pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, 2–17(–20) × 1–6 cm, thin to moderately thick, sparsely pubescent;
base truncate or obtuse;
apex acute, not rooting.
in (3–)5–15(–25) pairs, ovate, obovate to lanceolate or deltate-lanceolate;
medial pinnae 6–40 × 3–10 mm;
base truncate to obliquely obtuse;
margins dentate to denticulate;
apex acute or rounded.
obscure, anastomosing to form areoles near midrib.
free, barely evident.
numerous, scattered somewhat irregularly over blade, often joined at vein junctures.
3 to numerous pairs per pinna, on both basiscopic and acroscopic sides.
64 per sporangium.
64 per sporangium.
green, dull, nearly glabrous.
reddish or purplish brown proximally, fading to green in distal 1/3–2/3, lustrous, sparsely pubescent.
= 72.
= 144.
Asplenium rhizophyllum
Asplenium bradleyi
Asplenium rhizophyllum, a diploid species, is morphologically very distinctive within Asplenium and is segregated by many authors, along with its sister species A. ruprechtii Kurata of eastern Asia, into the genus Camptosorus Link. Proliferations arising from leaf tips result in the formation of clonal patches, often dense and extensive, on the mossy boulders and ledges where it typically grows. Naturally occurring sterile hybrids are known with A. platyneuron (these and their fertile allotetraploid derivatives are both referred to A. ebenoides), A. ruta-muraria (A. × inexpectatum E. L. Braun ex C. V. Morton), A. trichomanes subsp. trichomanes [A. × shawneense (R. C. Moran) H. E. Ballard], and A. ebenoides. In addition, the allotetraploid A. pinnatifidum is derived from the hybrid A. montanum × rhizophyllum; the sterile diploid hybrid is unknown.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Asplenium bradleyi is a morphologically variable species, the allotetraploid derivative of A. montanum × platyneuron (W. H. Wagner Jr. 1954; D. M. Smith and D. A. Levin 1963; C. R. Werth et al. 1985). The sterile diploid form of A. bradleyi has been collected twice in nature (W. H. Wagner Jr. et al. 1973; A. M. Evans 1988), and isozyme studies indicate that the allotetraploid has had a polytopic origin (C. R. Werth et al. 1985b). Occurring rarely to locally in the Appalachian region, A. bradleyi overlaps with both progenitor taxa, but it is fairly frequent in the Ozark and Ouachita region where A. montanum is absent. Sterile hybrids with A. pinnatifidum (A. × gravesii), A. montanum (A. × wherryi D. M. Smith et al.), and A. platyneuron are known from nature.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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