Astrolepis D.M. Benham & Windham
Descripción
Rhizomes compact, horizontal to erect, occasionally branched; rhizome scales stramineous to castaneous, concolorous to weakly bicolorous, linear, ciliate to entire; fronds monomorphic, clumped, 7–80 cm long; stipes 1⁄6–1⁄3 the frond length, castaneous to stramineous, terete, sparsely to densely clothed with white, linear-lanceolate to deeply dissected ciliolate scales; blades linear to linear-oblong, pinnate to pinnate-pinnatifid, coriaceous, abaxially clothed with imbricate, lanceolate to ovate, ciliate scales with underlying scurf of substellate scales, adaxially sparsely to moderately clothed with substellate to long-ciliate scales, often glabrescent, dull; pinnae 15–42 pairs, short-stalked to subsessile, articulate, ovate to oblong or narrowly deltate, cordate to truncate or rounded at bases, coriaceous; pinna margins undifferentiated, not recurved; veins obscure, free, pinnate; sporangia along distal 1⁄3 of veins; spores tetrahedral, dark brown, rugose; x=29.A
Forma de vida
Terrestre or epipetric.A
Distribución
México (Country) native and not endemicB
Ecología y Hábitat
In relatively dry regions.A
Categoría IUCN
No incluidaC
Categoría NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010
No incluidaD
Discusión taxonómica
A genus of five species, all occurring in Mexico, and perhaps some additional undescribed species.
Previously, the species of Astrolepis have been placed in either Notholaena or Cheilanthes. Benham and Windham (1992) have shown Astrolepis to be a distinct group with a chromosome base number of 29; it is separated from related genera by its pinnate to pinnate-pinnatifid fronds with many pinna pairs, two stipe bundles, imbricate scales abaxially, and substellate to ciliate scales on the adaxial blade surfaces. Molecular data (Gastony & Rollo, 1995) show that Astrolepis is sister to Pellaea and Argyrochosma.
A
Previously, the species of Astrolepis have been placed in either Notholaena or Cheilanthes. Benham and Windham (1992) have shown Astrolepis to be a distinct group with a chromosome base number of 29; it is separated from related genera by its pinnate to pinnate-pinnatifid fronds with many pinna pairs, two stipe bundles, imbricate scales abaxially, and substellate to ciliate scales on the adaxial blade surfaces. Molecular data (Gastony & Rollo, 1995) show that Astrolepis is sister to Pellaea and Argyrochosma.
A