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Schizaea pectinata (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE]
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Swaziland ferns and fern allies
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Swaziland Ferns and Fern Allies, (2003) Author: J.P. Roux
Names
Schizaea pectinata (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE]
Common names
pectinatus = with narrow close-set divisions like a comb
Vernacular names: Toothbrush fern, Curly grass fern, Cockscomb fern; Grasvaring (Afr.)
Information
Plants terrestrial or epilithic. Rhizome subterranean, short-decumbent, branched, to 2 mm in diameter, densely set with thinly crustaceous, castaneus, pluricellular, uniseriate hairs, apical cell small and thin-walled, to 4 mm long. Fronds approximate, dimorphic; stipe not differentiated from lamina; lamina coriaceus, sterile lamina simple, narrowly linear, to 320 mm long, to 1.2 mm wide, sparsely set with castaneus, unicellular fusiform hairs, fertile lamina with an apical fertile portion, to 1.6 mm long, midrib sulcate adaxially, convex abaxially; rachis recurved; segments pectinately arranged, up to 15 pairs, simple or forked once, longer towards the middle, to 8 mm long, to 0.6 mm wide, margins long-fimbriate, adaxially glabrous or sparsely set with unicellular hairs similar to those on the lamina, abaxially densely set with castaneus hairs, hairs unicellular, filiform, simple or irregularly branched, to 1.8 mm long. Sporangia in a single row on either side of the fertile segment costa, sessile, almost symmetric, ovoid or ellipsoid, with a subapical, uniseriate annulus. Spores brown, numerous, ellipsoidal to subglobose, monolete, foveolate, exospore to 95 (m long. Figure 13A & B.
Habitat
Ecology: Terrestrial or epilithic, on seasonally moist grass slopes, among rocks and in vleis. Not edaphically bound. Geophyte, mesoxerophyte; fronds mesoxeromorphic. Vegetative reproduction by the sparsely branched rhizome resulting in the formation of small clonal stands. Seasonal pattern apparently pronounced, fertile material collected in March. Pyrophytic.
Range
Distribution: The species is confined to the mountainous north-western part of Swaziland occurring at altitudes ranging between 1 200 and 1 500 m. Schizaea pectinata is confined to east tropical Africa, the eastern parts of South tropical Africa and southern Africa.
Date Updated: 19 August 2007
Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Swaziland ferns and fern allies
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Swaziland Ferns and Fern Allies, (2003) Author: J.P. Roux
Names
Schizaea pectinata (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE]
Common names
pectinatus = with narrow close-set divisions like a comb
Vernacular names: Toothbrush fern, Curly grass fern, Cockscomb fern; Grasvaring (Afr.)
Information
Plants terrestrial or epilithic. Rhizome subterranean, short-decumbent, branched, to 2 mm in diameter, densely set with thinly crustaceous, castaneus, pluricellular, uniseriate hairs, apical cell small and thin-walled, to 4 mm long. Fronds approximate, dimorphic; stipe not differentiated from lamina; lamina coriaceus, sterile lamina simple, narrowly linear, to 320 mm long, to 1.2 mm wide, sparsely set with castaneus, unicellular fusiform hairs, fertile lamina with an apical fertile portion, to 1.6 mm long, midrib sulcate adaxially, convex abaxially; rachis recurved; segments pectinately arranged, up to 15 pairs, simple or forked once, longer towards the middle, to 8 mm long, to 0.6 mm wide, margins long-fimbriate, adaxially glabrous or sparsely set with unicellular hairs similar to those on the lamina, abaxially densely set with castaneus hairs, hairs unicellular, filiform, simple or irregularly branched, to 1.8 mm long. Sporangia in a single row on either side of the fertile segment costa, sessile, almost symmetric, ovoid or ellipsoid, with a subapical, uniseriate annulus. Spores brown, numerous, ellipsoidal to subglobose, monolete, foveolate, exospore to 95 (m long. Figure 13A & B.
Habitat
Ecology: Terrestrial or epilithic, on seasonally moist grass slopes, among rocks and in vleis. Not edaphically bound. Geophyte, mesoxerophyte; fronds mesoxeromorphic. Vegetative reproduction by the sparsely branched rhizome resulting in the formation of small clonal stands. Seasonal pattern apparently pronounced, fertile material collected in March. Pyrophytic.
Range
Distribution: The species is confined to the mountainous north-western part of Swaziland occurring at altitudes ranging between 1 200 and 1 500 m. Schizaea pectinata is confined to east tropical Africa, the eastern parts of South tropical Africa and southern Africa.
![Schizaea pectinata (L.) Sw. [family SCHIZAEACEAE]](/fsi/img/misc/plants/static_thumbs/swaziland_icon96.jpg)
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