Species

Adiantum - Adiantaceae

Adiantum patens Willd. ssp. oatesii (Bak.) Schelpe

Photo: P. Ballings
Zimbabwe

Synonyms	Adiantum oatesii Baker Adiantum patens Willd. var. oatesii (Baker) F.Ballard Adiantum pedatum Peter
Common name
Description	Rhizome creeping, short; rhizome scales 2 mm long, brown, slightly ciliate, tapering from the base to a sharp tip. Fronds monomorphic, tufted, herbaceous, arching. Stipe 10-40 cm long, thin, brown to black, glabrous. Lamina triangular in outline, 25 × 30 cm, pedately divided into up to 11 linear, pinnate pinnae, each terminating in a single apical pinnule; pinnules numerous, stalkletss short wiry, brown, 1-3 mm long, rhombic to broadly obcuneate in outline, upper and outer margins irregularly lobed, midrib forms the lower margin, 15-25 -(30) × 0.7-10 mm, hairless. Sori on pinnule lobes on the upper and outer margin of the undersurface, indusial flap circular to kidney-shaped, up to 2 mm in diameter, hairless.
Notes	A. patens is pedately divided. It can be distinguished from A. hispidulum var. hispidulum which is sparsely set with hairs on the undersurface of the pinnae and has narrowly tapering pinnae segments.
Derivation	patens: spreading, diverging from the axis at almost 90 degrees; referring to the fronds; oatesii:for Frank Oates (1840-1875), British naturalist and traveller who arrived in South Africa in 1873.
Habitat	Slopes, rock-clefts, shady paths and banks, around boulder bases in forest and on streamsides in riverine forest.
Distribution worldwide	See African distribution.
Distribution in Africa	Burundi , Cameroon , Dem. Republic of Congo , Ghana , Nigeria , Sudan and South Sudan , Tanzania , Uganda , Zambia , Zimbabwe .
Growth form	Terrestrial.
Literature	Burrows, J.E. (1990) Southern African Ferns and Fern Allies. Frandsen, Sandton. Pages 122 - 123. As A. oatesii (Includes a picture). Jacobsen, W.B.G. (1983) The Ferns and Fern Allies of Southern Africa. Butterworths, Durban and Pretoria. Pages 227 - 228. As A. patens subsp. oatesii (Includes a picture). Kornas, J. (1979) Distribution and ecology of the Pteridophytes in Zambia. Polska Akademia Nauk Wydzial II Nauk Biologicznych. Page 64. As A. patens subsp.oatesii Roux, J.P. (2009) Synopsis of the Lycopodiophyta and Pteridophyta of Africa, Madagascar and neighbouring islands. Strelitzia 23, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. Page 70. Roux, J.P. (2001) Conspectus of Southern African Pteridophyta.Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report, 13 Page 75. Schelpe, E.A.C.L.E. (1970) Pteridophyta.Flora Zambesiaca, 0 Page 111. As A. patens subsp. oatesii Tardieu-Blot, M.-L. (1964) Ptéridophytes vol.3.Flore du Cameroun, Page 147. (Includes a picture). Verdcourt, B. (2002) Adiantaceae.Flora of Tropical East Africa, Pages 58 - 59.