Published December 20, 2023 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Meniscium arborescens Willd., Sp. Pl.

  • 1. Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 107, CH- 8008 Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2. University Herbarium, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. # 2465, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 - 2465.
  • 3. Department of Biology - Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Ny Munkegade 116, building 1137, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
  • 4. Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA), Rua João Carlos do Amaral 500, 13070 - 111, Campinas, SP, Brasil.
  • 5. New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York, 10458 - 5126, USA.

Description

Meniscium arborescens Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Sp. Pl. 5: 133. 1810.

Range:— Cuba, Dominican Republic; southern Mexico to Bolivia (PA), Brazil, and Paraguay.

Ecology:— Rare; terrestrial in humid forests; 220 m, to ca. 800 m elsewhere.

Notes:— Fernandes & Salino (2020) cited a specimen from Pando, a new record for Bolivia: Manuripi, 220 m, Jimenez 1967 (NY, UC). This specimen had previously been identified by us as M. longifolium. It is a problematic specimen, not typical M. arborescens, but not M. longifolium either; pending further collections, we keep it as M. arborescens.

[Meniscium falcatum Liebm., Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., Naturvidensk. Math. Afd., ser. 5(1): 183 (seors. 31). 1849.

= Thelypteris falcata (Liebm.) R.M. Tryon, Rhodora 69(777): 6. 1967]

Notes:— This widespread species was not included for Bolivia by Smith & Kessler (2017). However, Fernandes & Salino (2020) cited it from Cuba, southern Mexico to Panama, and Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia, based on seven Bolivian specimens: Beck 442 (UC), Eberhardt 236 (UC), Jiménez & Gallego 1047 (UC), Kessler 9703 (UC), Kessler 11197 (UC), and “ without collector s.n.” (UC) [should be Krukoff 11128]. However, all of these appear to us to be typical M. pachysorum, as determined and cited by Fernandes (2015). This species is usually readily distinguishable from M. falcatum by the long-petiolulate pinnae that are rounded at the base, these pinnae very broad (to 5 cm) and more elliptic than lanceolate (as in M. falcatum), and very large fronds, to 4.5 m – the key characters distinguishing M. pachysorum from M. falcatum (Fernandes and Salino 2020). In fact, Krukoff 11128 (UC) was cited in 2020 as M. falcata,without collector, s.n.”; specimens with this same number (from F, GH, K, MO, and NY) were cited by Fernandes & Salino (2020) as M. pachysorum. As a consequence of these possible changes of mind, resulting confusion, and our understanding of the taxonomic differences, we conclude that true M. falcatum does not occur in Bolivia, and that specimens so identified from Bolivia are all M. pachysorum.

Notes

Published as part of Kessler, Michael, Smith, Alan R., Øllgaard, Benjamin, Matos, Fernando B. & Moran, Robbin C., 2023, Prodromus of a fern flora of Bolivia. XLII. Update I., pp. 183-210 in Phytotaxa 630 (3) on page 205, DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.630.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/10409920

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Linked records

Additional details

Biodiversity

Family
Thelypteridaceae
Genus
Meniscium
Kingdom
Plantae
Order
Polypodiales
Phylum
Tracheophyta
Scientific name authorship
Willd., Sp. Pl.
Species
arborescens
Taxon rank
species

References

  • Fernandes, R. S. & Salino, A. (2020) Taxonomic revision of Meniscium Schreber (Thelypteridaceae: Polypodiopsida). Phytotaxa 463: 1 - 127.
  • Fernandes, R. S. (2015) Revisao taxonomica de Meniscium Schreb. (Thelypteridaceae-Polypodiopsida). Doctoral dissertation, Tese de Doutorado. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. 213 pp.