Compilation
Pteris catoptera

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Name

Identification
Pteris friesii Hieron. [family PTERIDACEAE ] Verified by Not on sheet., Pteris catoptera Not on sheet. [family PTERIDACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet.,
Related name
  • Pteris abyssinica
  • Pteris biaurita
  • Pteris togo��nsis
  • Pteris stolzii
  • Pteris quadriaurita
  • Pteris kameruniensis
  • Pteris catoptera
  • Pteris friesii

Flora

Entry for PTERIS catoptera Kunze [family ]
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, (2002) Author: BERNARD VERDCOURT
Names
PTERIS catoptera Kunze [family ], in Linnaea 18: 119 (1844); Tardieu, Fl. Madag. 5 (1): 98 (1958); Schelpe, F.Z. Pterid: 118 (1970); W. Jacobsen, Ferns S. Afr.: 240, fig. 172 (1983); Schelpe & N.C. Anthony, F.S.A.: 109, fig. 33/2, 2a (1986); J.E. Burrows, S. Afr. Ferns: 163 (1990); Schippers in Fern Gaz. 14: 185 (1993); Faden in U.K.W.F. ed. 2: 20, t. 171 (1994). Type: South Africa, Natal, between Omfondi and Tugela rivers, Gueinzius s.n. (LZ†, holo., K!, lecto.)
Information
Rhizome erect to shortly or long-creeping with linear-lanceolate dark brown scales 3.5–6 mm long with pale hairy margins. Fronds tufted, 0.25–2.5 m tall. Stipe straw-coloured, usually brownish or reddish at the base, 10–90 cm tall, glabrous or with short scales at base (and in one variety with slender spines). Lamina oblong or oblong-ovate in outline, 23–90 cm long, 17–60 cm wide; pinnae narrowly oblong, in 3–18 pairs, the lowest pair bipinnate with 1–3 accessory pinnae; pinnae 2.5–33 cm long, 0.7–4 cm wide; ultimate segments in (16–)25–41(–47) pairs, narrowly oblong, 1–2.3(–3.4) cm long, 2–5(–6) mm wide; rhachis smooth (or spiny in one variety); costae with spinules above at junction of costulae (and in one variety spinulose beneath); costulae smooth or with few to numerous spinules above; veins free. Sori extending for most of the length of the lobes, the sterile apices entire and rounded.
Notes
(on species as a whole). The presence or absence of costular spinules cannot be considered an important character since every intermediate is present between no spinules or only one on perhaps only one or two ultimate segments in a whole frond and numerous costules on every segment. The position is, however, more complicated and T. Walker (in litt.) assures me there are several species contained in the complex I am calling P. catoptera, and that the latter sensu stricto is a sexual diploid species; whereas P. friesii is completely distinct and an apomictic triploid. Mbala area is renowned for distinctive endemics. It is probably naive to associate all plants without costular spinules with the name P. friesii but I have not been able to discover clear constant morphological characters to sort out the very considerable available collections of P. catoptera sensu lato and cytological information is not rapidly available. For the purposes of a local flora it seems best to use P. catoptera in a wide sense. Clearly Hieronymus described too many supposed species but a very wide-ranging investigation is needed. P. quadriaurita Retz. is quite distinct; the type described from Ceylon has the sterile segment margins crenate and not entire.The erratic alternations between species and subspecies of P. quadriaurita published by Schelpe must be due to the varying lengths of time works were in the press and no attempts made to bring the manuscripts into line after Schelpe was made aware of the cytological differences.

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