Cheilanthes wootonii |
Pteridaceae |
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beaded lipfern, Wooton's lip fern |
brake family, maidenhair fern family |
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Habit | Plants perennial [annual], on rock or terrestrial, of small (rarely large) stature. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | long-creeping, 1–3 mm diam.; scales uniformly brown or weakly bicolored with poorly defined, dark, central stripe, lanceolate-ovate, straight to slightly contorted, loosely appressed, often deciduous on older portions of stem. |
compact to creeping, branched or unbranched, dictyostelic, bearing hairs and/or scales. |
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Leaves | scattered, 7–35 cm; vernation noncircinate. |
monomorphic to dimorphic, circinate or noncircinate in bud. |
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Petiole(s) | usually dark brown, rounded adaxially. |
usually with persistent scales proximally, lacking spines; vascular bundles 1–several, roundish or crescent-shaped in cross section. |
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Blade(s) | oblong-lanceolate, 3–4-pinnate at base, 2–5 cm wide; rachis rounded adaxially, with scattered linear-lanceolate scales and sparse monomorphic pubescence. |
1–6-pinnate, without laminar buds. |
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Ultimate segments | round to oblong, beadlike, the largest 1–3 mm, abaxially glabrous or with a few small scales near base, adaxially glabrous. |
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Pinnae | not articulate, dark color of stalk continuing into pinna base, basal pair not conspicuously larger than adjacent pair, usually equilateral, appearing glabrous adaxially. |
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Veins | pinnate or parallel in ultimate segments of blades, simple or forked, free or infrequently anastomosing in complex patterns. |
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Indusia | (when present) formed by reflexed, recurved, or revolute leaf margin (false indusium). |
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False indusia | marginal, weakly differentiated, 0.05–0.25 mm wide. |
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Sori | ± continuous around segment margins. |
borne abaxially on veins, often confluent with age and forming a continuous submarginal band, or sporangia densely covering abaxial surface (acrostichoid); receptacle not or only slightly elevated. |
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Sporangia | containing 32 spores. |
stalk of 2–3 rows of cells; annulus vertical, interrupted by stalk; spores 64 or 32 (rarely 16) per sporangium. |
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Spores | all 1 kind, brown, black, or gray (rarely yellow), globose to globose-tetrahedral or trigonal, occasionally with prominent equatorial ridge, trilete, or trigonal, variously ornamented (usually cristate or rugose). |
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Gametophytes | green, aboveground, obcordate to reniform, sometimes asymmetric, usually glabrous (glandular-farinose in Notholaena); archegonia and antheridia borne on abaxial surface, antheridia 3-celled. |
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Costae | green adaxially for most of length; abaxial scales multiseriate, lanceolate-ovate, truncate or subcordate at base, without overlapping basal lobes, conspicuous, the largest 0.4–0.8 mm wide, strongly imbricate, often concealing ultimate segments, ciliate, with coarse cilia often confined to proximal 1/2. |
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n | = 2n = 90, apogamous. |
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Indument | on petioles, rachises, costae, and blades, rarely absent or commonly of hairs, glands, and/or scales, occasionally of white or yellow farina. |
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Cheilanthes wootonii |
Pteridaceae |
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Phenology | Sporulating summer–fall. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Rocky slopes and ledges, usually on igneous substrates | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 800–2900 m (2600–9500 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; n Mexico
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Worldwide |
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Discussion | Like its close relative Cheilanthes lindheimeri, C. wootonii is an apogamous triploid of unknown parentage. With the recognition of C. yavapensis as a distinct species, the name C. wootonii is restricted to populations with leaf blades that appear glabrous adaxially, costal scales that are often ciliate only in the proximal half, and stem scales that are usually brown and loosely appressed. In addition, C. wootonii is distinguished from C. yavapensis by having smaller spores, averaging less than 62 µm in diameter. These characteristics can be subtle, and some specimens will be difficult to place in either C. wootonii or C. yavapensis. T. Reeves (1979) identified several specimens from Arizona that he hypothesized were hybrids between C. wootonii and C. fendleri. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Considerable disagreement exists concerning the circumscription and proper name of this family. The taxa comprising the Pteridaceae in this treatment were assigned to the Sinopteridaceae and Pteridaceae by D. B. Lellinger (1985) and were included in five families by R. E. G. Pichi-Sermolli (1977). The broad concept followed here is similar (except for the exclusion of Ceratopteris) to that espoused by R. M. Tryon and A. F. Tryon (1982), who applied the name Pteridaceae to the group. Until very recently, the newer name Adiantaceae was more commonly used. As represented in North America, Pteridaceae comprise three major evolutionary lines (the adiantoids, the pteroids, and the cheilanthoids). Characteristics holding the family together include abaxial (usually submarginal) sori that lack indusia or are protected by a reflexed or revolute leaf margin, spores that are usually globose-tetrahedral and trilete, and chromosome base numbers of 30 or 29 (rarely 27). The xeric-adapted members of the family (particularly the cheilanthoids) have undergone extensive parallel and convergent evolution, and they have frustrated attempts to produce a natural generic classification based on macromorphologic characteristics alone. Although some workers have aggregated species into a few large genera (e.g., J. T. Mickel 1979b), most tend to recognize smaller segregate genera based on a combination of morphologic, chromosomal, and biochemical data. The latter approach seems to provide a more useful, evolutionarily informative classification and is the one adopted here. Aspidotis and Notholaena are maintained here as distinct from Cheilanthes, and three recently described genera (Argyrochosma, Astrolepis, and Pentagramma) have been incorporated into the treatment. The reasons for these changes in generic circumscription are discussed under the individual genera. Genera ca. 40, species ca. 1000 (13 genera, 90 species in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2, p. 122. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Pteridaceae > Cheilanthes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Maxon: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 3: 146. (1918) | E. D. M. Kirchner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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