You are here
Ferns and relatives / Helechos y afines
Acrostichum L.
EOL Text
Medium-sized to large, terrestrial, perennial, often deciduous plants. Rhizome erect to procumbent, massive, with large, stiff scales at the apex and thick flashy roots. Fronds weakly dimorphic, tufted, coriaceous, stipes with numerous vascular bundles. Lamina pinnate with a free conform terminal pinna, glabrous when mature. Pinnae large, petiolate; lower ones sterile, upper ones usually fertile, fertile pinnae of the same shape as the sterile ones but usually narrower; veins forming a network without included veinlets. Sori covering the entire undersurface of the fertile pinnae (sporangia acrostichoid), exindusiate.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Flora of Zimbabwe |
Source | http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=33 |
Depth range based on 12 specimens in 2 taxa.
Environmental ranges
Depth range (m): 1 - 1
Note: this information has not been validated. Check this *note*. Your feedback is most welcome.
License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Ocean Biogeographic Information System |
Source | http://www.iobis.org/mapper/?taxon_id=774399 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:6
Specimens with Sequences:6
Specimens with Barcodes:6
Species:2
Species With Barcodes:2
Public Records:6
Public Species:2
Public BINs:0
Acrostichum is a fern genus in the Ceratopteridoideae subfamily of the Pteridaceae.[1] It was one of the original pteridophyte genera delineated by Linnaeus. It was originally drawn very broadly, including all ferns that had sori apparently "acrostichoid", or distributed in a solid mass across the back of the frond, rather than organized in discrete sori. This led Linnaeus to include such species as Asplenium platyneuron in the genus, because the specimen he received had sori so crowded that it appeared acrostichoid.
Since Acrostichum aureum is regarded as the type for the genus, it is now narrowly circumscribed only to the natural genus of three species, that are allied to the genus Ceratopteris. They are collectively known as the leather ferns or leather swamp ferns, genus members commonly being found in swamps. The species of Acrostichum are massive ferns, with fronds up to 12 feet (3.5 meters) tall, that depend on a semi-aquatic existence. They do not withstand prolonged immersion, but require wet roots. The species Acrostichum aureum is known to have a high saltwater tolerance, growing in mangroves.
Species[edit]
- Acrostichum aureum L.
- Acrostichum danaeifolium (Langsd.) Fisch.
- Acrostichum speciosum Willd.
- Acrostichum preaureum fossil plant.
References[edit]
- ^ Christenhusz et al., 2011 Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Xian-Chun Zhang & Herald Schneider: "A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns," Phytotaxa, 19: 7-54 (18 Feb. 2011)
- World species list for Acrostichum: http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/fern/acrostichum.htm
- C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Fern. Encyclopedia of Earth. National council for Science and the Environment. Washington, DC
This fern-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acrostichum&oldid=580500112 |