Pteris cretica |
Pteris cretica var. cretica |
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Cretan brake, Cretan brake fern, ribbon fern |
Cretan brake |
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Stems | slender, creeping, sparingly scaly; scales dark brown to chestnut brown. |
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Leaves | clustered to closely spaced, to 1 m. |
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Petiole | straw-colored to light brown distally, darker proximally, 10–50 cm, base sparsely scaly. |
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Blade | irregularly ovate, primarily and irregularly pedately divided, 10–30 × 6–25 cm; rachis not winged; only terminal pinna decurrent on rachis. |
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Pinnae | 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. |
without white or pale green, longitudinal streak along middle; sterile pinnae less than 10 mm wide, fertile segments less than 8 mm wide; terminal pinna somewhat to barely decurrent on rachis. |
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Veins | free, simple or forked. |
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Sori | narrow, blade tissue exposed abaxially. |
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Pteris cretica |
Pteris cretica var. cretica |
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Habitat | Terrestrial or on rock in rocky hammocks, limesinks, grottoes, and river bluffs | |||||
Distribution |
FL; LA; Widely scattered in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide
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FL; LA; widely scattered worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions [Introduced in North America] |
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Discussion | 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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. | ||||
Parent taxa | Pteridaceae > Pteris | Pteridaceae > Pteris > Pteris cretica | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Pycnodoria cretica | |||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Mant. Pl. 130. (1767) | Linnaeus | ||||
Web links |