Christella microbasis (Baker) Holttum
Synonyms |
Thelypteris microbasis (Baker) Tardieu |
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Common name |
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Description |
Rhizome shortly ascending, c. 10 mm in diameter; rhizome scales lanceolate in outline, 2-6 mm long, brown. Frond monomorphic, tufted. Stipe 15-60 cm long, strawcoloured, without hairs or scales. Lamina deeply 2-pinnatifid, elliptic to lanceolate in outline, basal 2-3 pairs of pinnae reduced, lowest pair much reduced (up to 2.5 cm long), 23-70 x 10-25 cm; pinnae narrowly oblong in outline, apex tapering to a point, 5-16 x 1-1.8 cm; ultimate lobes oblong in outline, falcate, basal acroscopic lobe enlarged, 5-10 x 2-4 mm; both surfaces with scattered pale hairs, more so on the veins, costae and costules, lower surface also with short, glandular or capitate, yellowish hairs; veins not anastomosing or almost so in the sinus but in E Africa often with many anastomising basal veins; rhachis set with long soft hairs. Sori round; indusia covered with short, yellow, glandular hairs and a few white hairs. |
Notes | Christella chaseana closely resembles C. microbasis but does not have the glandular hairs on the lower surface of the lamina nor the yellow glands on the indusia. |
Derivation | mikros: small, basis: base; most likely referring to the much reduced pair of basal pinnae. |
Habitat | Evergreen forest, Miombo woodland, growing by streams, in water-created recesses at the base of sandstone cliffs, on rocky ground in gorge near waterfall. |
Distribution worldwide | See African distribution. |
Distribution in Africa |
Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Zimbabwe. |
Growth form |
Terrestrial. |
Literature |
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