Pityrogramma

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Handbuch 3: 19. 1833.

Common names: Silverback fern goldback fern
Etymology: Greek pityros, bran, and gramma, lines (as in written characters), referring to the farina covering the abaxial leaf blade surface
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 2.
 TaxonIllustrator 
FNA2 P19 Acrostichum-Pteris-Pityrogramma pg 131.jpegAcrostichum danaeifolium
Pityrogramma trifoliata
Pteris vittata
John Myers
John Myers
John Myers

Plants terrestrial [or on rock]. Stems erect or nearly so, unbranched; scales brown, concolored or nearly so, lanceolate, margins entire. Leaves monomorphic, closely spaced, 25–150 cm. Petiole black to purplish black or reddish-brown, longitudinally grooved adaxially, glabrous, with 2 (–3) vascular-bundles. Blade linear-lanceolate to ovate or elongate-triangular, 1–4-pinnate, herbaceous to leathery, abaxially usually farinose, farina white or yellow, sometimes partially or completely replaced by trichomes, adaxially glabrous, dull, not striate; rachis straight. Ultimate segments stalked or sessile, free from costa or partially adnate to it, narrowly triangular to linear, entire or lobed; base narrowly cuneate, stalks when present green, not lustrous; margins not recurved to form false indusia. Veins of ultimate segments free, obscure, pinnately branched and divergent distally. False indusia absent. Sporangia scattered along veins, containing 32 or 64 spores, intermixed with farina-producing glands. Spores tan with dark-brown ridges, tetrahedral-globose, perispore usually reticulate, with equatorial flange (except in Pityrogramma trifoliata). Gametophytes glabrous.

Distribution

Primarily neotropical, some in Africa, elsewhere in Eastern Hemisphere

Discussion

The name Nesoris bicolor Rafinesque was based on a yellow-farinose plant from Florida and presumably represents a species of Pityrogramma. A type has not been located, and C. S. Rafinesque's (1836[–1838]b, part 4) description is not precise enough to permit equation of this name with modern nomenclature. No yellow-farinose Pityrogramma has since been reported from Florida.

Pentagramma has been segregated from Pityrogramma (G. Yatskievych et al. 1990) and comprises what was the Pityrogramma triangularis (Kaulfuss) Maxon complex.

Species ca. 15 (2 in the flora).

Key

1 Distal pinnae pinnately lobed or divided, narrowly triangular. Pityrogramma calomelanos var. calomelanos
1 Distal pinnae entire or serrulate, linear to narrowly lanceolate. Pityrogramma trifoliata
... more about "Pityrogramma"
George Yatskievych +  and Michael D. Windham +
cuneate +
linear-lanceolate +  and ovate or elongate-triangular +
herbaceous;leathery +
Silverback fern +  and goldback fern +
Primarily neotropical +, some in Africa +  and elsewhere in Eastern Hemisphere +
Greek pityros, bran, and gramma, lines (as in written characters), referring to the farina covering the abaxial leaf blade surface +
yellow +  and white +
obcordate;reniform +
monomorphic +
recurved +  and reflexed +
noncircinate +  and circinate +
25 cm250 mm <br />0.25 m <br /> (150 cm1,500 mm <br />1.5 m <br />) +
not recurved +
black;purplish black or reddish-brown +
tryon1962a +
nearly;concolored;brown +
persistent +
lanceolate +
1 +, 32 +  and 64 +
tetrahedral-globose +
not lustrous +
nearly +  and erect +
Pityrogramma +
Pteridaceae +
adnate +  and free +
crescent--shaped +  and roundish +