Palhinhaea cernua

Øllgaard, Benjamin, Boudrie, Michel & Cremers, Georges, 2020, The Lycopodiaceae of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, Phytotaxa 433 (2), pp. 101-134 : 109

2. Palhinhaea cernua (L.) Vasc. & Franco, Bol. Soc. Brot. 41: 25. 1967.— Lycopodium cernuum L., Sp. Pl. 1103. 1753.— Lepidotis cernua (L.) P.Beauv., Prodr. Aetheogamie 108. 1805.— Lycopodiella cernua (L.) Pic. Serm., Webbia 23: 165. 1968. Type:—LINN 1257.13, See Proctor (1977: 33). Fig. 3B .

Lycopodium cernuum L. var. capillaceum Spring, Mém. Acad. roy Belg. 15 [Mon. Lyc. 1]: 80. 1842.— Lycopodium capillaceum (Spring) Hieron., Bot. Jahrb. 34: 573. 1905.— Palhinhaea capillacea (Spring) Holub, Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 20: 78. 1985. Type:— VENEZUELA. Monagas: Guanaguana, Humboldt 473 (holotype B [B-W 19429 -01 0]).

Lycopodium cernuum L. var. brevifolium Christ ex Hassler, Bull. Herb. Boiss. , ser. 2, 3: 620. 1903. Type:— PARAGUAY. “In palude pr. flumen Jejui-Guazu,” Hassler 4677 (holotype G-2 sheets)

Lycopodium cernuum L. var. panamense Nessel, Revista Sudamer. Bot. 6: 173, fig. 102. 1940. Type:— PANAMA. Central Panamá, Balboa, 1921, Powell s.n. (holotype BONN Herb. Nessel 354).

Lycopodium cernuum L. var. watsonianum Herter ex Nessel, Revista Sudamer. Bot. 6: 173, fig. 101. 1940. Type:— PANAMA.Without locality, Biolley s.n. (BONN Herb. Nessel 355).

Plants with long arching-looping runner shoots, rooting at long intervals, these bearing erect, dorsally arising, amply branched, to 1 m tall, tree-like aerial shoots. Erect main axes bearing several, subdecussate to alternate, highly compound, spreading to horizontal, 5–15(–20) cm long lateral branchlet systems. Major stems usually glabrous or with few hairs. Ultimate branchlets nodding, 3–4(–6) mm in diam. including leaves. Branchlet leaves usually borne in densely crowded, alternating whorls or low spirals of 3–5, forming 6–10 indistinct longitudinal ranks, usually 3–4 × ca. 0.3 mm, acicular, terete to angular (dried), with often conspicuously acroscopically adnate and decurrent leaf bases, gradually changing from patent-reflexed and distant on main axes, to patent, upward curved and densely crowded in ultimate branchlets, occasionally with sparse, lax hairs or minute spinules; leaf bases often with longer, irregularly crisped or branched hairs, these sometimes also on stem surfaces. Strobili usually numerous, sessile, terminating ultimate branchlets, 4–10(–20) mm long, 2.5–3 mm in diam. Sporophylls usually borne in alternating whorls of 5, forming 10 longitudinal ranks, with coalescent leaf-bases almost enclosing the sporangia, with ovate-deltoid, short to long cuspidate, ca. 2 × ca. 1 mm with membranous, coarsely erose-laciniate margins. Sporangia globose, 0.5–0.8 mm in diam., strongly anisovalvate, the epidermal cells with straight, unlignified side walls and buttress-like lignified thickenings.

Distribution:—Pantropical.

Habitat: —A common pioneer species on road cuts and moist disturbed soil, along rivers, in forest clearings etc., from sea level to 2000 m.

Specimens examined:— GUYANA (63 collections): Upper Mazaruni R., de la Cruz 2331 (K, MO, UC, US), 2339 (K, MO, UC, US); Potaro-Siparuni Region: Kaieteur Falls, vicinity of Kaieteur airstrip, 450 m elev. Kvist 81 (AAU); Pomeroon R., de la Cruz 3107 (MO, UC, US); Garraway Stream, Potaro R., Maguire & Fanshawe 22969 (K, MO, P, U, VEN).— SURINAME (40 collections): Paramaribo, Kappler 333 (B, MO, P, UC); Wullschlagel 662 (BR, P), 663 (BR); railway at km 70, sectie 0, Maguire & Stahel 23627 (BR, K, MO, P, S, U, UC, US, VEN).— FRENCH GUIANA (79 collections): Commune de Roura, Cremers 9654 (B, CAY); Sinnamary, piste de St. Elie, Billiet & Jadin 1094 (BR, CAY); St. Laurent region, piste Balaté, Skog & Feuillet 7495 (AAU, CAY, P, US).

Figures

FIGURE 3. A. Palhinhaea camporum—(Brazil, Prado et al. 69, AAU). A. Growth habit. A1. Close-up of strobilus. A2. Close-up of sporophyll. Drawing by K. Tind.—B. Palhinhaea cernua (Ecuador, Holm-Nielsen et al. 4494, AAU). B. Growth habit. B1. Close-up of strobiliferous branchlet system. B2. Close-up of sporophyll. Drawing by B. Johnsen.