Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris quelpaertensis
Hottentot fern, spready tri-vein fern, Willdenow's fern, Willdenow's maiden fern
mountain fern, mountain marsh fern, queen's-veil maiden fern
long-creeping, cordlike, 3–6 mm diam.
short-creeping to suberect, 5–10 mm diam.
monomorphic, evergreen, 3–6 cm apart, 50–150(–250) cm.
monomorphic, dying back in winter, crowded, (15–)25–100 cm.
straw-colored to tan, 20–125 cm × 3–6 mm, scaleless.
straw-colored to tan above base, 3–20 cm × 2–5 mm, scales on petioles and rachises tan to straw-colored, persistent, ovate to lanceolate.
30–125 cm, broadest at base, gradually narrowed distally to pinnatifid apex.
elliptic, 25–80 cm, 5–10 pairs of proximal pinnae gradually smaller toward base, lowest pinnae ca. 1 cm, blade tapering gradually to pinnatifid apex.
7–30 × 1–2 cm, incised 1/3–1/2(–3/5) of width;
segments deltate, rounded to acute;
proximal pair of veins from adjacent segments united at acute or obtuse angle below sinus, with excurrent vein 2–4 mm.
deeply pinnatifid to ca. 1 mm or less from costa, 3–12 × 1–2 cm;
segments linear to oblong, somewhat oblique and often somewhat curved, entire or crenulate, basal segments of proximal pinnae more often crenulate;
proximal pair of veins from adjacent segments meeting margin above sinus.
round, medial to supramedial;
indusia tan, glabrous to hairy;
sporangia with red- or orange-capped, stalked, globose glands arising from sporangial stalks.
round, submarginal;
indusia tan, glabrous;
sporangia glabrous.
abaxially of hairs 0.1–0.3 mm on costae and veins, or hairs often lacking, costae also with tan, ovate scales;
veins, costules, and costae adaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent;
blade tissue without hairs on both sides, or hairy abaxially, usually with red to orange, shiny, sessile, hemispheric glands abaxially.
abaxially of tan to whitish linear scales along costae, hairs lacking or sparse along costae, blade tissue lacking glands or sparsely glandular.
= 144.
= 68.
Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris quelpaertensis
D. B. Lellinger (1985) applied the name Thelypteris interrupta to specimens from India, while using T. totta (type from South Africa) for North American and South American specimens. Diploid cytotypes are known from Africa and Asia, whereas all counts from the Neotropics are tetraploid. Until more counts are available and the morphologic variation (chiefly in glands, pubescence, and leaf size) in this species complex is better understood, I prefer to circumscribe the species broadly.
R. E. Holttum (1982) circumscribed Cyclosorus (as a genus) to include this species and one or two others.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Although the name Thelypteris limbosperma (Allioni) H. P. Fuchs, type from Europe, has usually been applied to plants in the flora, specimens from western North America match more closely those from eastern Asia; therefore, a name based on a Korean type is used here. The single collection from the coast of Newfoundland (reported by A. Bouchard and S. G. Hay 1976) is remarkably disjunct but matches collections from western North America rather than those of the European species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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