Flora of North America species comparison

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Blechnum occidentale

Blechnum occidentale var. minor

hammock fern
Photo is of parent taxon

hammock fern, new world midsorus fern
Stems

slender, creeping, elongate, branched, ascending to erect at tip, not climbing.
Leaves

± monomorphic, cespitose to widely spaced, erect to arching, fertile leaves only slightly contracted and longer than sterile leaves.
Petiole

straw-colored to light brown, (4-)8-34 cm, coarsely scaly proximally.
Blade

narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 1-pinnate proximally, becoming pinnatifid distally, or pinnatifid throughout, without conform terminal pinna, 10-30 × 3-12 cm, base truncate, pubescent abaxially.
Pinnae

not articulate to rachis, proximal pinnae sessile to subsessile, distal pinnae adnate;

larger pinnae curved, lanceolate, 2-7 × 0.5-1.5 cm.
Rachis

with indument of spreading, ± gland-tipped hairs abaxially.
Fertile

pinnae slightly contracted;

margins minutely serrulate to nearly entire;

costae with indument of hairs abaxially.
2n

= 124.

Blechnum occidentale

Blechnum occidentale var. minor
Habitat Rocky and clayey places near seasonally dry streams, shady hammocks or open woods, over limestone, soil nearly neutral
Elevation 0 m (0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; GA; LA; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
from FNA
FL; GA; LA; TX; Central America; West Indies; South America to Bolivia
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Blechnum occidentale var. minor differs from var. occidentale in having rachises slightly pubescent or puberulous abaxially. Both varieties are found throughout the New World tropics; B. occidentale var. minor grows at higher elevations (D. B. Lellinger 1985). The nomenclature of these taxa is complicated, and other names may apply. Systematic problems involving different ploidy levels and apparent geographic clines in Blechnum occidentale sensu lato remain to be solved.

Plants of Blechnum occidentale often reproduce extensively by stolons as well as by spores.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Blechnaceae > Blechnum Blechnaceae > Blechnum > Blechnum occidentale
Sibling taxa
B. serrulatum, B. spicant
Subordinate taxa
B. occidentale var. minor
Synonyms B. glandulosum, B. occidentale, B. occidentale var. pubirachis
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl., ed. 2 2: 1524. (1763) Hooker: Sp. Fil. 3: 51. (1860)
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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