Nephrolepis pendula (Raddi) J.Sm., J. Bot.

Smith, Alan R. & Kessler, Michael, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XXXVII. Nephrolepidaceae, Phytotaxa 334 (2), pp. 135-140 : 138

Nephrolepis pendula (Raddi) J.Sm., J. Bot. (Hooker) 4: 197. 1841.

= Nephrolepis obtusiloba A.Rojas, Métodes en Ecología y Systemática 3(Suppl. 1): 65(–69), f. 3. 2008.

Range: —Greater Antilles; southern Mexico to Bolivia (BE, CO, LP, SC) and Brazil.

Ecology: —Very common; epiphytic and terrestrial species with erect leaves, often forming large colonies; to 2600 m.

Notes: —By far the commonest species of Nephrolepis in Bolivia. Rhizomes short-creeping to suberect, lacking tubers; rhizome scales castaneous, lustrous, with long-ciliate margins; petioles brown, lustrous, with a few scales at the bases; rachises mostly glabrous, except at pinna bases, scales concolorous; pinnae unequally lobed, each with an acroscopic lobe overlapping the rachises; indusia reniform to semicircular.

Nephrolepis obtusiloba , type from Costa Rica, Herrera 4788 (isotype UC!), was said by Rojas (2008) to occur from southern Mexico to Bolivia. Characters he used in differentiating his new species from N. pendula were: rachis bearing scales only at the insertion point of pinnae (vs. scaly throughout); pinnae commonly auriculate basiscopically and overlapping the rachis (vs. truncate to rounded basiscopically; and acroscopic auricles overlapping the rachis and with an obtuse apex (vs. rarely overlapping the rachis, with an acute apex). For us, these differences are minor, the characters variable and part of a morphological continuum in a broad range of phenotypes shown by N. pendula . Rojas cited a single specimen of N. obtusiloba from Bolivia (SC, Nee 41704, UC), and 25 Bolivian specimens of N. pendula , most of which we have seen.