Pyrrosia lanceolata

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Monilophytes > Polypodiales > Polypodiaceae >  Pyrrosia lanceolata

Other links:    https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2916416

Species:     P confluens,   P lanceolata,  P rupestris               

Plant  information

Common name:         Lance-leaf Tongue Fern

Conservation status: unkown

Etymology:   

• The Latin name of Pyrrosia comes from the Greek pyrrhos (red), which refers to its leaves that are red due to the sporangia

• lanceolata: lanceolate, referring to the outline of the fronds, a rather meaningless epithet as it applies to practically all the species of the genus

Spores:                            

• Rhizome slender, widely creeping, c. 1 mm in diameter; rhizome scales pale brown to grey, linear to lanceolate, ciliate, up to 4 × 0.8 mm. Fronds spaced apart, stipitate, coriaceous. Stipe up to 20 mm long, densely covered with soft hairs when young, glabrous later. Lamina 50-200 × 6-10 mm, simple, linear-lanceolate to linear-elliptic, apex pointed to rounded, base wedge-shaped to tapering, margins narrowly reflexed. Lower surface densely covered with soft, appressed, grey to brown stellate hairs with short arms, upper surface sparsely covered to more or less hairless. Sori numerous, oval, up to 1 mm long, confined to the upper half of the frond, emerging through the hairs.

Leaves:         

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• Cameroon, central African Republic, congo, DRC, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Principe, Réunion, Rodrigues Isl., Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe

• Also Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia to south China and Polynesia

Additional notes:     

• Pyrrosia is a genus of about 100 fern species in the polypod family, Polypodiaceae

• Like other species in Polypodiaceae, the species of Pyrrosia are generally epiphytic on trees or rocks, a few species are terrestrial

Sources of information:

• (2023)