Asplenium rhizophyllum
Asplenium trichomanes-dentatum
doradille ambulante, walking fern, walking spleenwort
tooth spleenwort
not proliferous.
proliferous.
erect or ascending, usually unbranched;
scales dark brown throughout, narrowly deltate, 2–3 × (0.2–)0.5–1 mm, margins entire.
erect, unbranched;
scales blackish throughout, linear, 0.9–1.1 × 0.2–0.3 mm, margins entire.
monomorphic but fertile leaves generally larger than sterile leaves.
dimorphic;
sterile leaves short with small crowded pinnae;
fertile leaves 9–20 cm with long, widely spaced pinnae.
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.
pale green except darkish proximally, dull, (1–)4–6(–10) cm, 1/5–1/2 length of blade;
indument absent.
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.
linear, 1-pinnate, 3–10(–15) × 1–2.5 cm, papery, slightly glandular;
base not tapered;
apex with elongate terminal pinna similar in size to subtending lateral pinnae, not rooting.
in 5–8(–12) pairs, ovate, strongly asymmetric, lanceolate;
medial pinnae 3–11 × (2–)4–6 mm;
base acute;
margins crenate-dentate;
apex truncate.
obscure, anastomosing to form areoles near midrib.
free, somewhat evident.
numerous, scattered somewhat irregularly over blade, often joined at vein junctures.
(1–)2–5(–8), mostly on acroscopic side.
64 per sporangium.
64 per sporangium.
green, dull, nearly glabrous.
green throughout, dull, glabrous.
= 72.
= 108.
Asplenium rhizophyllum
Asplenium trichomanes-dentatum
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.)
In the flora Asplenium trichomanes-dentatum is known only from shady hammocks in extreme southern peninsular Florida, where it grows in colonies. This delicate spleenwort should be studied in detail and compared with its similar and apparently conspecific counterparts in tropical America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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