Flora of North America species comparison

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Pleopeltis polylepis

Pleopeltis riograndensis

redscale scaly polypody

Rio Grande scaly polypody
Stems

short-creeping, sparingly branched, 2–3 mm diam.;

scales subulate to lanceolate-acuminate, centrally clathrate with cell luminae large and clear, surfaces glabrous, margins lacerate-ciliate.
Leaves

to 20 cm, strongly hygroscopic.
Petiole

grooved, otherwise round in cross section, sparsely scaly;

scales rarely overlapping, margins denticulate to ciliate.
Blade

triangular-oblong to ovate, deeply pinnatifid, to 5 cm wide, moderately scaly abaxially, glabrous adaxially;

scales concolored to obscurely bicolored, usually dark reddish brown throughout, broadly ovate-lanceolate, clathrate, more than 0.5 mm wide, margins fringed-ciliate.
Sori

round, discrete, surficial to shallowly embossed, soral scales attached at periphery of receptacle.
Spores

smooth with scattered spheric deposits on surface, 60–74 µm. 2n = 148.
Venation

mostly free with occasional areoles, never more than 1 included veinlet in fertile areoles.

Pleopeltis polylepis

Pleopeltis riograndensis
Phenology Sporulating summer–fall.
Habitat Growing on rocky slopes and ledges, and in crevices, usually in moist, shaded canyons
Elevation 1500–2500 m (4900–8200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico; Central America
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; TX; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

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

In the past Pleopeltis riograndensis has been treated as a variety of P. thyssanolepis, but it differs from the latter species in that the petiole and leaf are only sparsely scaly rather than densely so, the blade scales are mostly ovate or ovate-lanceolate rather than nearly spheric, the venation is mostly free rather than mostly areolate, and the basal segments of the blade are alternate rather than opposite to nearly opposite.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Polypodiaceae > Pleopeltis Polypodiaceae > Pleopeltis
Sibling taxa
P. astrolepis, P. polypodioides, P. riograndensis
P. astrolepis, P. polylepis, P. polypodioides
Subordinate taxa
P. polylepis var. erythrolepis
Synonyms Polypodium polylepis Polypodium thyssanolepis var. riograndense
Name authority (Roemer ex Kunze) T. Moore: Index Fil. 348. (1862) (T. Wendt) E. G. Andrews & Windham: in Windham, Contr. Univ. Michigan Herb. 19: 46. (1993)
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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