Scaly CloakfernCarl Rothfels
Notholaena aschenborniana is widespread in Mexico, and enters the United States in southern Arizona and western Texas (where it is rare: S1 in Arizona and S2 in Texas; NatureServe, 2008). It is restricted to rocky habitats, usually on limestone. All populations studied to date are triploid (they have three complete chromosome sets) and reproduce asexually through apogamy (the sporophytes produce unreduced spores, which develop into triploid gametophytes, which then produce a new sporophyte directly from their vegetative tissue, without sexual reproduction; Windham, 1993a; Windham and Yatskievych, 2003)
At first glance, N. aschenborniana is likely to be mistaken for a Cheilanthes, due to its copious covering of scales on the undersides of its leaves. Underneath the scales, however, is a layer of farina typical of core Notholaena species. The stiff ascending leaves of this species are lanceolate, 2- to 3-pinnate, and are supported by thick scaly stalks. Within Notholaena, it is most likely to be confused with the similarly scaly N. galeottii, but N. galeottii has stiff undivided hairs on the upper surface of the leaves, whereas N. aschenborniana has stellate (star-shaped) hairs.
Top: Notholaena aschenborniana (the gray colour of the leaf upper surfaces is due to the stellate hairs). Bottom: Notholaena galeottii. © 2009 Carl Rothfels
Giauque, M. F. A. 1949. Wax glands and prothallia. American Fern Journal 39:33-35.
Mickel, J. T., and A. R. Smith. 2004. The Pteridophytes of Mexico. The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York.
NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer, Arlington, Virginia. www.natureserve.org/explorer/
Rothfels, C. J., M. D. Windham, A. L. Grusz, G. J. Gastony, and K. M. Pryer. 2008. Toward a monophyletic Notholaena (Pteridaceae): Resolving patterns of evolutionary convergence in xeric-adapted ferns Taxon 57:712-724.
Tryon, R. M. 1956. A revision of the American species of Notholaena. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 179:1-106.
Windham, M. D. 1993a. Notholaena. Pages 143--149 in Flora of North America (Flora of North American Editorial Committee, ed.) Oxford University Press, New York.
Windham, M. D., and G. Yatskievych. 2003. Chromosome studies of cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) from the western United States and Mexico. American Journal of Botany 90:1788-1800.
Wollenweber, E. 1984. Exudate flavonoids of Mexican ferns as chemotaxonomic markers. Rev. Latinoamer. Quim. 15:3-11.
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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Page copyright © 2010 Carl Rothfels
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- First online 23 December 2008
- Content changed 07 January 2010
Citing this page:
Rothfels, Carl. 2010. Notholaena aschenborniana http://tolweb.org/Notholaena_aschenborniana/133590/2010.01.07 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. Scaly Cloakfern. Version 07 January 2010 (under construction).