Flora of North America species comparison

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Astrolepis cochisensis

Cochise scaly cloakfern, scaly cloak-fern
Stems

compact;

stem scales uniformly tan or somewhat darker near base, to 10 mm, margins ciliate-dentate to entire.
Leaves

7–40 cm.
Blade

1-pinnate to pinnate-pinnatifid, pinna pairs 20–50.
Pinnae

oblong, largest usually 4–7 mm, entire or asymmetrically lobed, lobes 1–4, broadly rounded, separated by shallow sinuses;

abaxial scales completely concealing surface, ovate, usually 0.5–1 mm, ciliate with coarse marginal projections;

adaxial scales sparse, deciduous, stellate to coarsely ciliate, mostly circular to elliptic, peltate, body more than 5 cells wide.
Sporangia

containing 32 or 64 spores.

Astrolepis cochisensis
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; OK; TX; Mexico
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora).

Astrolepis cochisensis is reported to be toxic to sheep (F. P. Mathews 1945). Three cytotypes that occupy different ranges and/or habitats have been identified and are treated here as subspecies. These include a sexual diploid (subsp. chihuahuensis) found on calcareous substrates in the Chihuahuan Desert; an apogamous triploid (subsp. cochisensis), which inhabits primarily calcareous substrates in the Sonoran, Mojavean, and western Chihuahuan deserts; and an apogamous tetraploid (subsp. arizonica), which occupies primarily noncalcareous substrates in southern Arizona. Isozyme analyses suggest that subsp. cochisensis is an autotriploid derivative of the diploid subsp. chihuahuensis (D. M. Benham 1989). Both the isozymes and substrate preferences of subsp. arizonica indicate, however, that it is not a simple autotetraploid and that other taxa remain to be discovered within the Astrolepis cochisensis complex.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Sporangia containing 64 spores; spores averaging 39– 46 µm diam.; plants of calcareous substrates in Texas, s New Mexico.
subsp. chihuahuensis
1. Sporangia containing 32 spores; spores averaging 59– 86 µm diam.; plants of calcareous and noncalcareous substrates in California, Arizona, Nevada, w New Mexico, extreme w Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, n Mexico.
→ 2
2. Spores averaging 59–70 µm diam.; plants primarily of calcareous substrates throughout Southwest.
subsp. cochisensis
2. Spores averaging 72–86 µm diam.; plants primarily of noncalcareous substrates in s Arizona.
subsp. arizonica
Source FNA vol. 2, p. 141.
Parent taxa Pteridaceae > Astrolepis
Sibling taxa
A. integerrima, A. sinuata, A. windhamii
Subordinate taxa
A. cochisensis subsp. arizonica, A. cochisensis subsp. chihuahuensis, A. cochisensis subsp. cochisensis
Synonyms Notholaena cochisensis, Cheilanthes cochisensis, Cheilanthes sinuata var. cochisensis, Notholaena sinuata var. cochisensis
Name authority (Goodding) D. M. Benham & Windham: Amer. Fern J. 82: 57. (1992)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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