e-Flora of Thailand

Volume 3 > Part 4 > Year 1989 > Page 569–570 > Polypodiaceae > Polypodium

2. Polypodium amoenum Wall. ex Mett.wfo-0001117722

Abhandl. Senckenb. Naturf. Ges. 2: 80. 1857; C.Chr., Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 26: 333. 1931; Ching, Contr. Inst. Bot. Natl. Acad. Peiping 2: 43. 1933; Tardieu & C.Chr. In Fl. Indo-Chine 7(2): 536. 1941; Tagawa, J. Jap. Bot. 38: 325. 1963; Tagawa & K.Iwats., S.E. Asian Stud. 5: 56. 1967.


Accepted Name : Goniophlebium amoenum (Wall. ex Mett.) Bedd.
Ferns Brit. India 1: 5. 1865.


Description : Rhizome wide-creeping, about 5 mm diam., dark brown, densely scaly throughout; scales narrow with ovate peltate base, up to 5 by 2 mm, not so stiff, light brown to greyish, more or less clathrate. Stipes stramineous or faintly castaneous, 10–30 cm long, scaly at base, glabrescent upwards. Laminae somewhat variable in form and size, usually oblong to oblong-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid with more or less distinct apical lobes, smaller ones subdeltoid, up to 50 by about 25 cm; rachis stramineous to castaneous, usually minutely scaly beneath or sometimes hairy; lobes up to 25 pairs, a few basal pairs a little shorter than the next above, deflexed, middle and lower ones patent, straight or slightly falcate, linear-lanceolate, acuminate at apex, up to 15 by 1.7 cm, continuous to the next ones by narrow wings of rachis more than 2 mm in breadth; costa more or less hairy on upper surface; veins forming a row of costal areoles or rarely an additional row, visible on both surfaces; papyraceous to subcoriaceous. Sori terminal on included veinlets in costal areoles, thus in a single row at each side of costa, about 1 mm diam., superficial or slightly sunken.


Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Pha Hom Pok, Doi Chiang Dao, Doi Suthep, Doi Inthanon), Phitsanulok (Phu Miang); NORTH-EASTERN: Loei (Phu Luang); SOUTH-EASTERN: Chanthaburi (Khao Soi Dao).


Distribution : Himalayas (type) to Burma, S China, Indochina, Taiwan.


Ecology : On mossy tree-trunks or on moist mossy rocks in dense evergreen forests, fairly common at high altitudes (1,400–2,300 m).


Notes: In form and size of the fronds, this is a species fairly variable. In deep gloomy places, the fronds become larger and thinner, usually green in colour. The type specimen is such a larger plant. In dryer places like those on the ridge, in contrary, the fronds are subdeltoid in outline, thicker and paler. The hairiness is also variable without any particular relation to the habitat, though the figures of Beddome are erroneous to draw hairs densely on laminar surface. Only a few specimens are sparsely hairy on upper surface of laminae, but nothing particular in the other characters.


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


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