Hemionanthes gryphus (Mickel) Mickel
Descripción
Rhizomes 3–7 mm diam.; rhizome scales 2–3 mm long, linear, bicolorous, with a central, lustrous, dark-castaneous to atropurpureous streak and narrow, tan margins; fronds to 46 cm long, approximate; stipes stramineous, grayish brown at bases, with very slender, mostly bicolorous scales at bases, otherwise glabrous; pinnae 5–7 pairs, each lanceolate to deltate, acuminate, with 2–4 pairs of broad obtuse lobes, the basiscopic lobes ca. twice as long as the acroscopic ones; veins mostly free but with occasional anastomoses (2–5 per pinna); sporangia along the distal 2–4 mm of the veins; 2n=60 (Nay).A
Forma de vida
TerrestreA
Ejemplar revisado
Col (only the type). Méx (Velásquez Montes 1149, MEXU). Mich (Eggler 171, US). Nay (Ranker 799, KANU; Yatskievych 85-73, CHAPA).A
Distribución
México (país) EndémicoA
Elevación
200 mA
Ecología y Hábitat
In moist shaded gulleys.A
Tipo de vegetación
Selva bajaA
Categoría IUCN
No incluidaB
Categoría NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010
No incluidaC
Discusión taxonómica
This species has the appearance of a hybrid between Hemionitis Subcordata and Cheilanthes skinneri (Mickel, 1987). It is intermediate in blade dissection, length of pinna stalks, number of pinna pairs, blade shape, venation, pinna margin, and, most strikingly, in sorus pattern. No morphological features contradict this hypothesis. Furthermore, the two presumed parents were collected at the type locality.
The spores of Hemionanthes gryphus are well formed and essentially the same size as those of the presumed parents. Thomas Ranker (pers. comm.) collected the plant in Nayarit and found it to be a diploid; it did not have the additive chemical composition that would be typical of fern hybrids. When Cheilanthes gryphus was first described (Mickel, 1987), Hemionitis subcordata was also transferred to that genus. It is possible that gryphus, skinneri, and subcordata (whatever their genera) are closely allied and form a distinct group apart from either Cheilanthes or Hemionitis, but the sorus configurations differ so dramatically that we prefer to retain skinneri, with its marginal sori and highly modified false indusia, in Cheilanthes, and subcordata, with its sori running nearly the entire length of the veins and its unmodified pinna margins, in Hemionitis. The latter is not a perfect fit in Hemionitis, but it would be an even more bizarre element in Cheilanthes.
A
The spores of Hemionanthes gryphus are well formed and essentially the same size as those of the presumed parents. Thomas Ranker (pers. comm.) collected the plant in Nayarit and found it to be a diploid; it did not have the additive chemical composition that would be typical of fern hybrids. When Cheilanthes gryphus was first described (Mickel, 1987), Hemionitis subcordata was also transferred to that genus. It is possible that gryphus, skinneri, and subcordata (whatever their genera) are closely allied and form a distinct group apart from either Cheilanthes or Hemionitis, but the sorus configurations differ so dramatically that we prefer to retain skinneri, with its marginal sori and highly modified false indusia, in Cheilanthes, and subcordata, with its sori running nearly the entire length of the veins and its unmodified pinna margins, in Hemionitis. The latter is not a perfect fit in Hemionitis, but it would be an even more bizarre element in Cheilanthes.
A