Dryopteris squamiseta (Hook.) Kuntze

Dryopteridaceae, JP Roux, M Shaffer-Fehre, B Verdcourt. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2007

Type

Bioko [Fernando Po], Clarence Peak, Mann 380 (K!, holo.)

Morphology General Habit

Terrestrial or lithophyte.

Vegetative Multiplication Rhizomes

Rhizome erect or short-creeping, 2–4 cm wide and deep; scales dark brown-black, to 10 × 2 mm, mixed with filiform scales of same length or smaller, leaving stubble when breaking off; in upper part of stipe fewer and smaller, linear with wider base, to 2–4 mm, frequently with glandular tip

Morphology Leaves

Fronds tufted, 6–9 per plant, erect and spreading.

Morphology Leaves Stipes

Stipe 18–60+ cm long, 2–5 mm in diameter at base, with adaxial groove and lateral grooves, with dark brown-black linear scales 2–10 × 2 mm, base widened, often gland-tipped.

Morphology Leaves Leaf lamina

Lamina thin, pale to mid-green, red when very young, ovate to deltoid, 34 × 34 cm, 2-pinnate to 3-pinnatisect.

Morphology Leaves Rachis

Rachis pale brown to stramineous, sparsely scaly, but with tuft at junction with pinnae.

Morphology Leaves Pinnae

Pinnae in 10–14 pairs, gradually merging into pinnatifid tip marked by decurrent lamina; pinnules in 8–12 pairs, opposite or sub-opposite, lower ones with lobed or crenate margin, basal acroscopic segment always more deeply cut or extended along costa; mid-vein in pinnule with ± 2 pairs of veinlets, not reaching margin; abaxial lamina glabrous, veins and veinlets with few relatively large multiseptate hairs (0.5)–1 mm long

Morphology Reproductive morphology Sori

Sori frequently constrained to top half, rarely present throughout pinnule, 1–1.4 mm in diameter; indusium 0.8–1 mm in diameter, with a plain, heavily undulating margin, deep notch to its centre aligned with the underlying veinlet, backward-pointing to the next larger vein or parallel to costa, stalk 0.3 mm long, with thick, knobbly radial walls

Morphology Reproductive morphology Spores

Spores monolete, oval, 0.05 mm long, 0.03 mm wide, with widely spaced, coarse tuberculae

Figures

Figure 12

Ecology

Moist forest, often near water, or bamboo forest; 1850–2950 m

Conservation

Widespread; least concern (LC)

Note

Ching states that his new genus occupies an intermediate systematic position between Dryopteris, Peranema and Diacalpe. The genus agrees with Peranema D.Don and DiacalpeBlume in habit, leaf texture and colour, pattern of pinnation and particularly in the presence on costa and costules above of peculiar thick, stout, rufo-brown setae at the insertion of veins and veinlets, but differs above all in the dryopteroid indusium, the position of which is superior in relation to the sorus.

Distribution

Flora districts: U2 K3, K4 T2 T6 T7 Range: From Bioko and Cameroon to Ethiopia and south to South Africa; Madagascar, Asia

Use

None recorded for our area