A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

POLYPODIACEAE 55
Common in thickets; widely distributed in the Philippines. Tropical
Africa and Asia to Polynesia.
2. A. philippense L. (/I. lunidatuiii Burm.). Culantrillo (Sp.-Fil.).
Stipes slender, dark-brown, shining, pflabrous, tufted, 5 to 20 cm long.
Fronds simply pinnate, 10 to 30 cm long, 5 to 8 cm wide; leaflets slenderly
stalked, thin, dimidiate, oblong to semilunate in outline, 1 to 3.5 cm long,
0.8 to 1.5 cm broad, the lower margin nearly straight or forming an angle
at the insertion of the stalk, the upper margin semicircular, entire or
slightly lobed. Sori oblong to linear, as long as the lobes are broad.
Common on wet or damp cliffs and banks in the rainy season, in thickets,
etc.; throughout the Philippines. Tropics generally.
*3. A. MACROPHYLLUM Sw. .
Stipes black, shining, naked, 15 to 30 cm long. Fronds simply pinnate,
20 to 35 cm long, 10 to 20 cm wide, with about 6 pairs of opposite, lateral,
sessile or subsessile pinnae (leaflets) below the terminal one; lower pinnae
of sterile fronds 7 to 10 cm long, about 5 cm wide, their bases subhastate,
inequilateral, the fertile ones somewhat smaller than the sterile, somewhat
falcate, acuminate, the sori linear, continuous or somewhat interrupted,
along the margins.
Cultivated for ornamental purposes, not spontaneous. A native of
tropical America, introduced here and in other tropical countries.
*4. A. TENERUM Sw. Alambre (Sp.-Fil.) ; Maiden Hair Fern.
Stipes stiff', 20 to 30 cm high, naked, black or nearly so, shining. Fronds
25 to 70 cm long, deltoid, 3- or 4- pinnate. Leaflets flabellate-cuneate, thin,
1 to 2 cm long, jointed on their pedicels, the base cuneate, the pedicel
attached at about the middle of the base, the upper and outer edge somewhat
rounded, slightly or rather deeply lobed, the veins forked, slender.
Sori in rounded to transversely oblong patches in shallow hollows terminating
the lobes.
Commonly cultivated but not spontaneous. A native of tropical America,
introduced here and in other tropical countries.
•5. A. TRAPEZIFORME L.
A stout, coarse fern, the stipes black, shining, 15 to 50 cm high, naked.
Fronds 2- or 3-pinnate with a terminal branch 10 to 20 cm long and 2 to 4
large ones on each side, the lowest of which are often branched again.
Leaflets subcoriaceous, 4 to 6 cm long, 2 to 3 cm wide, the ba.se nearly
a right-angle, the pedicel attached at the angle, obliquely ovate to trape-
zoidal in outline, the apex subacute, the upper and outer margins slightly
lobed. Sori transversely oblong, terminating the lobes.
Cultivated for ornamental purposes, not spontaneous; much the largest
species of the genus in the Philippines. A native of tropical America,
introduced here and in other tropical countries.
12. PTERIS Linnaeus
Terrestrial ferns, usually tufted, the stipes not jointed to the creeping
or erect rootstock. Fronds various, at least pinnate, the lowest pinnae
often most developed, especially on the lower side. Veins free or forming
areolae along the costa. Sorus on a submarginal strand connecting the
ends of the veins, protected by the modified and reflexed continuous margin
of the frond, without an extrorse indusium. (Greek name for a fern.)