Pteris cretica
Pteris
Cretan brake, Cretan brake fern, ribbon fern
brake, brake fern
slender, creeping, sparingly scaly;
scales dark brown to chestnut brown.
erect or creeping, branched;
scales pale brown to black, concolored, elongate, margins entire.
clustered to closely spaced, to 1 m. Petiole straw-colored to light brown distally, darker proximally, 10–50 cm, base sparsely scaly.
monomorphic, clustered or closely spaced, 1–20 dm.
straw-colored, green, brownish red to purple black, longitudinally ridged, 2–3-grooved adaxially, scaly at base, glabrous or scaly distally, with 1 (less often 2 or more) vascular bundle.
irregularly ovate, primarily and irregularly pedately divided, 10–30 × 6–25 cm;
rachis not winged;
only terminal pinna decurrent on rachis.
oblong to lanceolate to deltate, 1–4-pinnate, herbaceous to leathery, abaxially and adaxially glabrous or sometimes pubescent or scaly, adaxially dull, not striate;
rachis straight.
of blade sessile to short-stalked, linear to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5–8 mm wide;
base truncate or narrowed to stalk, stalk when present green, not lustrous;
margins plane or reflexed to form false indusia.
1–3 pairs, well separated, blade often 5-parted with terminal pinna and 2 lateral pairs of pinnae remaining green through winter, not articulate;
sterile pinnae to 25 × 0.8–1.5 cm, serrulate;
fertile pinnae narrower than sterile pinnae, to ca. 11 mm wide, spiny-serrate;
base acute acroscopically and decurrent (sometimes narrowly and barely so) basiscopically, glabrous;
proximal pinnae with 1 (rarely 2) basiscopic lobes.
free, simple or forked.
in leaves conspicuous, free (except in sori) and forking well above base of segment, or highly anastomosing.
pale, scarious, covering sori.
narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially.
intramarginal, sori usually continuous except at pinna or segment apex and sinuses, paraphyses present.
brown, trilete, tetrahedral, rugate and/or tuberculate, usually with prominent equatorial flange.
= 29.
Pteris cretica
Pteris
Pteris cretica is almost pantropical in distribution (C. V. Morton 1957). Because this species is so commonly and widely cultivated and appears to escape easily in warmer regions, its native range is uncertain.
Young leaves of young plants of Pteris multifida may key to P. cretica because only the terminal pinnae may be decurrent on the rachis as in P. cretica. Juveniles of P. multifida can be separated by proximal pinnae with long-attenuate apices and thinner-textured leaves than P. cretica. Juveniles of P. cretica have proximal pinnae with acute to blunt or nearly rounded apices and thicker-textured leaves.
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species ca. 300 (5 species and 1 hybrid in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Pinnae green throughout. | var. cretica |
1. Pinnae with broad, white, central stripe. | var. albolineata |
1. Veins in leaves anastomosing except sometimes near margins of ultimate segments. | P. tripartita |
1. Veins in leaves entirely free. | → 2 |
2. Leaves not strictly 1-pinnate, at least proximal pinnae pinnatifid-lobed or variously forked or divided. | → 3 |
2. Leaves strictly 1-pinnate, pinnae not lobed or divided. | → 4 |
3. Pinnae of mature leaves decurrent to relatively broad-winged rachis in at least distal 1/2 of leaf. | P. multifida |
3. Pinnae of mature leaves not decurrent to relatively broad-winged rachis or only terminal pinna decurrent on rachis. | P. cretica |
4. Petioles and often also rachises densely scaly, scales light to reddish, often grading into hairs on abaxial costae; pinnae appearing not articulate to rachis, apices long-attenuate or sharply acute; sori narrow, with most of abaxial blade surface exposed. | P. vittata |
4. Petioles often sparsely scaly or scaly only proximally, scales dark brown to nearly black, scales absent or few on rachises, abaxial costae with or without hairs; pinnae appearing articulate to rachis, apices acute; sori broad, little or no abaxial blade tissue exposed. | P. bahamensis |
CA
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