Asplenium uhligii Hieron.
Synonyms |
Asplenium kassneri Hieron. |
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Common name |
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Description |
Rhizome creeping, 2-3 mm thick; rhizome scales up to 5(-9) mm long, shiny brown, ovate-deltate in outline, entire, apex tapering to a point ending in a hair tip. Fronds clearly spaced apart, not proliferous. Stipe up to 23 cm long, purplish black, slender, stipe and rhachis glabrous or with few scales similar to rhizome. Lamina 5-30 cm × 2-16 cm, 2-pinnate to 3-pinnatifid, ovate-lanceolate in outline, basal pinnae longest, apical pinnae decrescent. Pinnae 6-13 pairs, dull green, wedge-shaped-rhomboid in outline, 1.5-8 x 0.6-3 cm, glabrous above, subglabrous below with pale brown scales along costule and veins, venation flabellate; ultimate segments narrowly obcuneate and with finaly toothed distal margins, apical segment of each pinna usually drawn out to a point. Sori oval to linear in outline, elongate, 1-2 per pinnule segment, set along the veins, 2-7 mm long; indusium brownish, entire, 0.4-0.5 mm wide. |
Notes | Confused with A. aethiopicum group; A. uhligii has a thin, creeping rhizome, a very thin stipe, shiny brown ovate rhizome scales, ovate scales on the lower pinnule surface. |
Derivation | uhligii: named after V.K.Uhlig who first collected this fern on Mount Kilimanjaro. |
Habitat | Deeply shaded recesses among dolerite boulders, giant heath zone, Senecio-Hypericum woodland and Podocarpus forest. |
Distribution worldwide | See African distribution. |
Distribution in Africa |
Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe. |
Growth form |
Epiphytic, lithophytic. |
Literature |
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