Flora of North America species comparison

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Polystichum lemmonii

Lemmon's holly fern, Lemmon's sword fern, Shasta fern, Shasta sword fern
Stems

decumbent to ascending.
Leaves

erect, 1–3.5 dm;

bulblets absent.
Petiole

1/5–1/4 length of leaf, sparsely scaly;

scales pale tan, abruptly diminishing in size distally.
Blade

narrowly lanceolate, 2-pinnate, scarcely narrowed at base.
Pinnae

ovate, overlapping, folded inward and twisted horizontally, 0.5–2 cm;

base truncate to oblique, proximal acroscopic pinnules not enlarged;

apex broadly acute;

microscales narrowly lanceolate, with few projections, sparse, ± confined to costa of both surfaces.
Indusia

entire or minutely dentate-erose.
Spores

dark brown to blackish.
Pinnules

± stalked, rounded, acroscopic auricle not well developed, margins entire to weakly dentate, apex rounded.
2n

= 82.

Polystichum lemmonii
Habitat On rocky serpentine slopes
Elevation 1200–2400 m (3900–7900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Polystichum lemmonii forms sterile hybrids with P. scopulinum and P. munitum. The first hybrid may be abundant where the two parents grow together, which they frequently do in the Wenatchee Mountains of Washington and Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and southwest Oregon. The hybrid is very similar to P. lemmonii but has malformed sporangia and slightly less divided pinnae than P. lemmonii. The P. lemmonii × P. munitum hybrid is morphologically indistinguishable from P. scopulinum; it is a sterile diploid reported only twice from the Wenatchee Mountains of Washington (W. H. Wagner Jr. 1973; P. S. Soltis et al. 1989). It is possible that this hybrid involves P. imbricans and not P. munitum; neither study distinguished between them.

American authors have misapplied the name Polystichum mohrioides (Bory) C. Presl, a South American species, to P. lemmonii.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Dryopteridaceae > Polystichum
Sibling taxa
P. acrostichoides, P. aleuticum, P. andersonii, P. braunii, P. californicum, P. dudleyi, P. imbricans, P. kruckebergii, P. kwakiutlii, P. lonchitis, P. microchlamys, P. munitum, P. scopulinum, P. setigerum
Synonyms P. mohrioides var. lemmonii
Name authority L. Underwood: Native Ferns ed. 6 116. (1900)
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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