Volume 3 > Part 2 > Year 1989 > Page 272–273 > Aspleniaceae > Asplenium

12. Asplenium salignum Blumewfo-0001125541

Enum. Pl. Javae: 175. 1828; Holttum, Rev. Fl. Malaya 2: 421. f. 243. 1955; Tagawa & K.Iwats., Southeast As. St. 5: 85. 1967.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Rhizome short, ascending, scaly; scales appressed, narrowly subdeltoid, long-acuminate at apex, about 10 by 1.5 mm, dark brown and more or less clathrate centrally, the edges paler, thin-walled, irregularly margined, about 0.1 mm broad. Stipe 10–30 cm long, green to stramineous, darker towards base, wingless, glabrous or minutely scaly. Lamina simple to pinnate, simple frond like the terminal pinna of pinnate frond, up to 35 by 25 cm in pinnate form; lateral pinnae up to 3 pairs, shortly stalked or subsessile, linear, falcate, up to 20 by 2.2 cm, long-acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, entire, or minutely serrate above; terminal pinna and simple frond gradually narrowing towards long-acuminate apex, attenuate to cuneate at base, up to 30 by 3.5 cm, chartaceous, light green, glabrous or minutely scaly; midrib raised below, hardly so above, glabrous; veins forked near midrib, visible on both surfaces but not raised. Sori along acroscopic branches of veins, up to 7 mm long; indusia up to 0.7 mm broad, pale brown, thin but firm, persistent.

Thailand : SOUTH-EASTERN: Trat (Ko Chang); PENINSULAR: Surat Thani (Khao Nong), Phangnga (Nop Pring), Nakhon Si Thammarat (Khao Luang, Khiriwong), Satun (Boriphat Falls), Yala (Ban Chana).

Distribution : S China, Burma, Malesia (type from Java).

Ecology : On tree-trunks or on moist mossy rocks in humid places usually along streams in dense evergreen forests at low or medium altitudes (100–800 m).

Notes: Simple and pinnate fronds often co-exist on a single stock, and this species may indicate that the simple-fronded species are not phyletically distinct from the pinnately compound species. In simple form, this is very close to Asplenium scortechinii, differing from it in shorter and proportionately broader fronds and acuters angle of sori, about 45° to midrib. This is also similar to A. ensiforme, but differs from it in usually toothed margin towards apex of pinnae. On the other hand, the pinnate form is similar to A. tenerum and the group of A. serricula, commonly known as A. wightianum.

E-version notes : For more details see Ferns of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.