Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris subg. Cyclosorus
Hottentot fern, spready tri-vein fern, Willdenow's fern, Willdenow's maiden fern
long-creeping, cordlike, 3–6 mm diam.
monomorphic, evergreen, 3–6 cm apart, 50–150(–250) cm.
straw-colored to tan, 20–125 cm × 3–6 mm, scaleless.
30–125 cm, broadest at base, gradually narrowed distally 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.
round, medial to supramedial;
indusia tan, glabrous to hairy;
sporangia with red- or orange-capped, stalked, globose glands arising from sporangial stalks.
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.
from other subgenera by the combination of evergreen leaves, usually long- to short-creeping stems more than 5 mm diam., pinnate-pinnatifid blades with proximal pinnae usually not shortened (except Thelypteris hispidula and T. dentata), and some veins meeting margin at or below the sinuses.
= 36.
= 144.
Thelypteris interrupta
Thelypteris subg. Cyclosorus
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.)
Species 7–12 were monographed by A. R. Smith (1971), who treated them in Thelypteris sect. Cyclosorus. These same species were placed in Christella sect. Pelazoneuron by R. E. Holttum (1982, p. 553), who restricted use of Cyclosorus to Thelypteris interrupta (species 15 here) and two other species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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