Notholaena montieliae Yatsk. & Arbeláez 2008

Introduction

Notholaena montieliae was newly described in 2008 (Yatskievych and Arbeláez, 2008); previously, the few collections of this species were thought to be the superficially similar Notholaena rosei. Notholaena montieliae has an unusual geographic range for a core Notholaena species (for any cheilanthoid for that matter)—all collections are from acidic rocks in a small area of Honduras and adjacent western Nicaragua. Central America is otherwise free of endemic cheilanthoids, and has a low cheilanthoid richness in general.

Characteristics

In its general leaf shape and dissection, N. montieliae probably most closely resembles N. jaliscana (a member of the N. aureolina clade), but is easily distinguished from that species by its farina color (white rather than bright yellow) and leaf margins (slightly recurving over the sporangia vs. modified into strongly differentiated ciliate false indusia). The white farina and light-colored leaf stalks distinguish N. montieliae from all other core Notholaena species except for N. rosei. The leave blades of N. rosei are longer than those of N. montieliae (relative to their width) and have proportionally shorter stalks that are more densely glandular. Notholaena montieliae can also be distinguished by its interesting tendency to have fractiferous stipes: leaf stalks that consistently break off at the same distance up from the rhizome (Yatskievych and Arbeláez, 2008).

Other Names for Notholaena montieliae Yatsk. & Arbeláez 2008

• Vernacular Names: Tropical Cloakfern

References

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NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer, Arlington, Virginia. www.natureserve.org/explorer/

Rothfels, C. J., M. D. Windham, A. L. Grusz, G. J. Gastony, and K. M. Pryer. 2008. Toward a monophyletic Notholaena (Pteridaceae): Resolving patterns of evolutionary convergence in xeric-adapted ferns Taxon 57:712-724.

Tryon, R. M. 1956. A revision of the American species of Notholaena. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 179:1-106.

Windham, M. D. 1993a. Notholaena. Pages 143--149 in Flora of North America (Flora of North American Editorial Committee, ed.) Oxford University Press, New York.

Windham, M. D., and G. Yatskievych. 2003. Chromosome studies of cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) from the western United States and Mexico. American Journal of Botany 90:1788-1800.

Wollenweber, E. 1984. Exudate flavonoids of Mexican ferns as chemotaxonomic markers. Rev. Latinoamer. Quim. 15:3-11.

Yatskievych, G., and A. L. A. Arbeláez. 2008. A new species and three generic transfers in the fern genus Notholaena (Pteridaceae). Novon 18:120-124.