Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris sclerophylla
Hottentot fern, spready tri-vein fern, Willdenow's fern, Willdenow's maiden fern
stiff maiden fern, stiff star-hair fern
long-creeping, cordlike, 3–6 mm diam.
short-creeping to suberect, 5–8 mm diam.
monomorphic, evergreen, 3–6 cm apart, 50–150(–250) cm.
monomorphic, evergreen, clustered, 20–55(–80) cm.
straw-colored to tan, 20–125 cm × 3–6 mm, scaleless.
straw-colored, 5–18(–25) cm × 1–3 mm, at base with brown, lanceolate, stellate-hairy scales.
30–125 cm, broadest at base, gradually narrowed distally to pinnatifid apex.
15–40(–55) × 5–10 cm, proximal 2–5(–10) pairs of pinnae gradually reduced, blade gradually narrowed distally to a 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.
18–25 pairs, 2–5(–8) × 1–1.5(–2) cm, deeply serrate to incised nearly 3/4 of width, distal pinnae often strongly adnate;
segments of rather harsh texture, somewhat oblique, rounded-deltate to often acute;
proximal pair of veins from adjacent segments united below sinus with excurrent vein.
round, medial to supramedial;
indusia tan, glabrous to hairy;
sporangia with red- or orange-capped, stalked, globose glands arising from sporangial stalks.
round, medial to supramedial;
indusia tan, densely stellate-hairy;
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.
on both surfaces of numerous, sessile or short-stalked, stellate hairs 0.1–0.2 mm on costae, veins, and blade tissue;
rachises and costae sometimes with longer simple hairs to 0.8 mm abaxially.
= 144.
= 144.
Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris sclerophylla
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.)
In the flora Thelypteris sclerophylla is known only from Dade County, Florida, where it is rare.
C. Christensen (1913), C. V. Morton (1951), and D. B. Lellinger (1985) have attributed the basionym to Kunze in Sprengel, but Sprengel clearly credited Poeppig, rightly or wrongly. Sprengel's original description also differs in a number of details from that by G. Kunze (Linnaea 9: 92. 1834), so that Kunze's later attribution of the basionym to himself cannot be accepted.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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