Trichomanes polypodioides

Kessler, Michael & Smith, Alan R., 2017, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. X. Hymenophyllaceae, Phytotaxa 328 (3), pp. 201-226 : 221

Trichomanes polypodioides L., Sp. Pl. 1098. 1753.

= Trichomanes polypodioides L. var. incisum Farw., Amer. Midl. Naturalist 12: 247. 1931.

= Trichomanes sinuosum Rich. ex Willd., Sp. Pl. , ed. 4 (Willdenow), 5: 502. 1810.

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

Ecology: —Fairly common; epiphytic low on tree trunks, rarely on earth banks, in humid forests; 200–1700 m.

Notes: —Small specimens may be mistaken for species of Didymoglossum (e.g., D. reptans ) but differ by lacking false veins and by having few (vs. dense, blackish) rhizoids on the rhizomes.

Trichomanes polypodioides is closely related to T. anadromum Rosenst. , type from southeastern Brazil. The latter species ranges northward to Costa Rica and Panama and southward into northeastern Argentina; it has been occasionally been attributed to Bolivia, in identifications (Rusby 138, NY, UC), but this gathering is T. polypodioides . In T. anadromum the sori are positioned on the acroscopic sides of the pinnae (vs. also apically in T. polypodioides ), and the venation in individual pinnae is anadromous, as the epithet suggests (vs. catadromous or sometimes isodromous in T. polypodioides ).