Compilation
Asplenium furcatum

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Name

Identification
Asplenium furcatum L. [family ASPLENIACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet.,
Related name
  • Asplenium rigidum
  • Asplenium protractum
  • Asplenium furcatum
  • Asplenium laserpitiifolium
  • Asplenium buettneri
  • Asplenium aethiopicum
  • Asplenium blastophorum
  • Asplenium adiantoides
  • Asplenium praemorsum
  • Asplenium buettnerii
  • Asplenium linckii

Flora

Entry for Asplenium aethiopicum (Burm.f.) Becherer [family ASPLENIACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (2008) Author: Henk Beentje
Names
Asplenium aethiopicum (Burm.f.) Becherer [family ASPLENIACEAE], in Candollea, 6: 23 (1935); A.V.P.: 29 (1953); Alston, Ferns W.T.A.: 59 (1959); Schelpe, F.Z. Pteridophyta: 181 (1970); Burrows, S. Afr. Ferns: 246, map, figs. (1990); Johns, Pterid. trop. East Africa checklist: 61 (1991); Thulin, Fl. Somal. 1: 13 (1993); Faden in U.K.W.F. ed. 2: 30, t. 173 (1994). Type: South Africa, Cape, herb. Burmann s.n. (G, holo. fide Burrows; but no type indicated in protologue, so this must be lecto.)
Trichomanes aethiopicum Burm. f. [family ], Fl. Cap. Prodr. in Fl. Ind.: 32 (err. 28) (1768)
Asplenium adiantoides Lam. [family ASPLENIACEAE], Encycl. Méth. Bot. 2: 309 (1786), non ( L.) C.Chr. (1905). Type: South Africa, Sonnerat s.n. (P, holo., not found)
Asplenium falsum Retz. [family ASPLENIACEAE], Obs. Bot. 6: 38 (1791). Type: South Africa, False Bay, no collector indicated
Asplenium furcatum Thunb. [family ASPLENIACEAE], Prodr. Pl. Cap.: 172 (1800). Type: South Africa, no locality or collector indicated
Tarachia furcata (Thunb.) C.Presl [family ASPLENIACEAE], Epim. Bot.: 80 (1851) reimpr. in Abh. Königl. Böhm. Ges. Wiss., ser. 5, 6: 440 (1851)
Asplenium albersii Hieron. [family ASPLENIACEAE], in E.J. 46: 380 (1912); Johns, Pterid. trop. East Africa checklist: 61 (1991); Schippers in Fern Gaz. 14, 6: 198 (1993). Type: Tanzania, Usambara, Kwai, Albers 289 (B!, lecto., chosen by Pichi-Sermolli 1974 according to detslip on B sheet); Kwai, Gomba Mt, Buchwald 295 (B!, K! [see note], syn.); Lutindi, anno 1902, Liebusch s.n. (B!, syn.), syn. nov.
Asplenium praemorsum [family ASPLENIACEAE], sensu Sim, Ferns S. Afr. ed. 2: 163, t. 65, 66 (1915), non Sw. (1788)
Information
Epiphyte, lithophyte or occasionally terrestrial; rhizome erect or shortly creeping, occasionally long-creeping, up to 7 mm diameter, with dark brown to blackish subulate to narrowly triangular (sub-)entire attenuate clathrate scales 3–7x0.3–0.6 mm, with very narrow paler margin, ending in a hair-point. Frond tufted to shortly spaced, usually arching, not proliferous, firmly herbaceous to thinly coriaceous. Stipe dark brown to blackish, 4–40 cm long, covered at first with a mixture of scales similar to those on rhizome and mid-brown basally ovate, attenuate clathrate often rather hair-like scales to 3 mm with margin entire or with a few hair-like outgrowths, becoming subglabrous with age except near base. Lamina ovate to lanceolate in outline, 8–60x2.5–16 cm, 2-pinnate to 3-pinnatifid or even 3-pinnatisect on lowermost pinnules, with the lower pinnae not reduced or occasionally slightly reduced; apical pinnae gradually decrescent. Pinnae in 7–25 pairs, dark to olive green, deltoid to narrowly lanceolate, and pinnatifid to 2-pinnatifid, 1.5–12x0.7–4 cm, base stalked, unequally cuneate, divided into narrowly obcuneate to narrowly oblong segments, pinnules in general irregularly incised and serrate or crenate at their apices, scaly to glabrous beneath, sparsely scaly to glabrous on the upper surface. Rachis dark brown to blackish, green above and distally, covered with mostly hair-like scales but with some lanceolate scales, similar to those on the stipe, becoming subglabrous with age. Sori closely packed along the veins, linear, 2.5–10 mm long, when sporulating may obscure lower surface of pinnule; indusium very narrowly linear, membranous, subentire, 0.3–0.5 mm wide. Fig. 9: 9–11, p. 54.
Range
DISTR. U 1–4; K 1–7; T 1–4, 6–8 throughout tropical Africa and to South Africa; Indian Ocean islands
Altitude range
1150–3000(–3700) m
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier District Ndoto Mts, Manmanet ridge, Oct. 1995, Bytebier & Kirika 34!KENYA Nanyuki District Ngare Ndare forest, Apr. 1985, Beentje 2098!KENYA Teita District Taita Hills, Mbololo, May 2000, Wakanene & Mwangangi 260!TANZANIA Meru District Olmotonyi Forestry Institute, Mar. 1983, Mtui 146!TANZANIA Lushoto District Shume–Maramba, May. 1987, Kisena 632!TANZANIA Njombe District Livingstone Mts, Malaba Mt, Jan. 1991, Gereau & Kayombo 3606!UGANDA Karamoja District Mt Kadam, Obda peak, Apr. 1953, G.H.S. Wood 947!UGANDA Ankole District Buhweju, Rwakondo, Jan. 1990, Rwaburindore 2935!UGANDA Mt Elgon, Suam ridge, June 1997, Wesche 1412!
Notes
CONSERVATION Widespread; least concern (LC). An extremely variable species, in both size, leaf dissection and pinna shape. It seems likely there is more than one taxon involved, and/or hybridization; but for practical reasons, it is treated here as a single (‘sensu lato’) taxon. Plants from above 3000 m altitude have shorter stipes and pinnae, and rarely exceed 20 cm; plants growing on rocks are also usually rather small, and possibly plants exposed to full sun in such situations have the fronds less dissected. Braithwaite in Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 93: 343–378 describes four subspecies from South Africa, with a few references to East African material. The taxa are keyed out by agamospermy (subsp. filare A.F.Braithw.), leaf dissection and spore characters, and include subsp. tripinnatum (Baker) A.F.Braithw. and subsp. dodecaploideum A.F.Braithw. Chaerle, in his unpublished thesis on the afromontane Aspleniums, follows Braithwaite; I am unable to write a working key to these taxa and so prefer to keep this taxon as ‘sensu lato’ (if not latissimo) for the time being. I have added A. albersii to the synonymy; with some reluctance, as it presents a form that is reasonably distinct in the narrowly obovate segments. This form however does not key out, all its characters being within the range of variation of A. aethiopicum; nor is there a geographical or ecological gap. The A. albersii form occurs in K 7; T 3, 6, 7; and is found in moist forest between 900–2000 m. Two of its types, Buchwald 295 and Libusch s.n., are A. aethiopicum sensu stricto, and only the third represents the albersii facies. An added problem is that this brings A. buettneri even closer to the main aethiopicum group...AspleniumalbersiiHieron. var. eickii Hieron. is a synonym of A. linckii. The most closely related other species are the following:A. praegracile, distinguished by more finely dissected lamina and the creeping rhizome; A. blastophorum, distinguished by proliferous fronds; A. buettneri distinguished by its obovate, rounded pinnules; A. lividum distinguished by the sori in the wings along the rachis; A. uhligii and A. volkensii distinguished by their widely spaced fronds on a creeping rhizome. A plant from Kenya, K 3, Twins Hills [not traced], 00°15'S 36°35'E [which makes this N Aberdares], rock crevices at 3300 m, Sep. 1976, Schippers K369, has few and short pinnae with narrow lobes (about 1 mm wide) but the scale mixture of this taxon. I believe it to be an aberrant high-altitude form, but it looks strange enough to mention it as something to look out for.

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