Entry for SCHIZAEA dichotoma (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE]
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (2000) Author: B. VERDCOURT, B.Sc., Ph.D.
Names
SCHIZAEA dichotoma (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE], in J. Bot. (Schrader) 1800, 2: 102 (1801); Reimers in N.B.G.B. 11: 395 (1932); Tardieu, Fl. Madag. 8: 2 (1952); Holttum, Fl. Malaya 2, Ferns: 50, fig. 6 (1955; ed. 2, 1968); Pócs in Boissiera 24b: 491 adnot. (1976); Lovett in Fern Gaz. 13: 119 (1986). Type: “China” (actually Cochinchina), Petiver, Gazophylacium 2, t. 70/12 (1709)
Acrostichum dichotomum L. [family PTERIDACEAE], Sp. Pl.: 1068 (1753); Sm. in Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci. (Turin) 5: 422, t. 9 (1793)
Distribution
TANZANIA Pare District S Pare Mts, Gonja, Mgambo Forest, 31 Aug. 1982, Kibuwa 5547!;TANZANIA Iringa District Uzungwa Mts, Sanje, 29 Nov. 1983, Lovett 224! & above Sanje Village, Mwanihana Forest Reserve, 22 Sept. 1984, D.W. Thomas 3699! & Sanje Lodge Camp, 5 Jan. 1981, Stuart & Rogers 838!
Notes
Apparently unknown from continental Africa before 1931 when Schlieben collected it at Lupembe. Very variable, much of the Asiatic material being more regularly radiate than that from Madagascar, Mascarenes and mainland Africa. Holttum (1955) specifically comments on the variation in Malaya mentioning that specimens only 2–3-branched occur together with richly branched specimens, all of them fertile, and that no clear cut distinction can be made between them. Sir J.E. Smith has usually been accepted as the author of new combinations in his genus Schizaea but this is not so. He lists the species under previous names as examples of what belongs in his new genus, but combinations are not actually made.