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Notholaena lemmonii D.C. Eaton 1880

Lemmon's Cloakfern

Carl Rothfels
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Containing group: core Notholaena

Introduction

This is a predominantly Mexican species of rocky open slopes, which barely extends into the United States in extreme southeastern Arizona (where it is rare—S1S2—NatureServe, 2008). There are two currently recognized varieties with non-overlapping geographic ranges, which probably represent distinct species. Further study is needed. Notholaena lemmonii var. lemmonii has dark leaf stalks, long rhizome scales, and occurs from the Mexican state of Jalisco north, whereas N. lemmonii var. australis R. M. Tryon has light stalks, shorter rhizome scales, and is found only in Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and México (Mickel and Smith, 2004).

Notholaena lemmonii var. lemmonii is one of the notholaenid taxa that exhibits interesting variation in farina color and chemistry (Wollenweber, 1984). Most individuals have white or very pale yellow farina, but some plants, particularly from the islands of the Gulf of California, have deep orange farina. The taxonomic significance of these chemotypes warrants further attention.

The position of N. lemmonii within core Notholaena II (as inferred from plastid DNA sequences—Rothfels et al., 2008) is a little odd, given that it has long linear leaves, and thus superficially resembles the members of core Notholaena I. However, N. lemmonii is glabrous, while most member of core Notholaena I are scaly. It and the closely related N. meridionalis appear to represent a single independent transition to linear leaves (Rothfels unpublished).

Characteristics

Notholaena lemmonii is one of the strongly farinose linear-leaved core Notholaena taxa that cannot easily be confused with anything outside this group. Within the linear-leaved Notholaena, N. lemmonii is distinct from most (i.e., N. grayi and other members of core Notholaena I) by its glabrous leaves, and from the closely related N. meridionalis by its grooved leaf stalks (the leaf stalks of N. meridionalis are not grooved).

Other Names for Notholaena lemmonii D.C. Eaton 1880

References

Giauque, M. F. A. 1949. Wax glands and prothallia. American Fern Journal 39:33-35.

Mickel, J. T., and A. R. Smith. 2004. The Pteridophytes of Mexico. The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York.

NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer, Arlington, Virginia. www.natureserve.org/explorer/

Rothfels, C. J., M. D. Windham, A. L. Grusz, G. J. Gastony, and K. M. Pryer. 2008. Toward a monophyletic Notholaena (Pteridaceae): Resolving patterns of evolutionary convergence in xeric-adapted ferns Taxon 57:712-724.

Tryon, R. M. 1956. A revision of the American species of Notholaena. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 179:1-106.

Windham, M. D. 1993a. Notholaena. Pages 143--149 in Flora of North America (Flora of North American Editorial Committee, ed.) Oxford University Press, New York.

Windham, M. D., and G. Yatskievych. 2003. Chromosome studies of cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) from the western United States and Mexico. American Journal of Botany 90:1788-1800.

Wollenweber, E. 1984. Exudate flavonoids of Mexican ferns as chemotaxonomic markers. Rev. Latinoamer. Quim. 15:3-11.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Notholaena lemmonii var. lemmonii
Location USA, Arizona, Alamo Canyon
Acknowledgements Reproduced with permission from Arizona Ferns
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By J.Metzgar
Life Cycle Stage sporophyte
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © Jordan Metzgar
Scientific Name Notholaena lemmonii var. lemmonii
Location USA, Arizona, Alamo Canyon
Acknowledgements Reproduced with permission from Arizon Ferns
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By J.Metzgar
Life Cycle Stage sporophyte
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 2005 Jordan Metzgar
About This Page

Carl Rothfels
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Carl Rothfels at

Page: Tree of Life Notholaena lemmonii D.C. Eaton 1880. Lemmon's Cloakfern. Authored by Carl Rothfels. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Rothfels, Carl. 2008. Notholaena lemmonii D.C. Eaton 1880. Lemmon's Cloakfern. Version 23 December 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Notholaena_lemmonii/133610/2008.12.23 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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