Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

Vines and Climbing Plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands 41
pinnules puberulent, oblong, elongate, with
prominent venation, the apex obtuse to rounded.
Sporangia on the lower surface of digitiform
marginal projections of the basal secondary
pinnules or on fertile pinnae, markedly dissectedlobed;
indusium forming a small pocket, which
opens toward the apex of the leaf blade.
8. Family SELAGINELLACEAE
1. SELAGINELLA
Phenology: Found in fertile condition
throughout the year.
Status: Exotic, naturalized, uncommon.
Distribution: Native to Japan, cultivated and
apparently naturalized in several localities in
Puerto Rico. Widely cultivated in tropical and
subtropical areas.
Public forest: Río Abajo.
Terrestrial herbs, usually creeping or decumbent, rarely erect or clambering. Leaves numerous,
microphyllous, with a single vein; monomorphic and spirally arranged or dimorphic and distichous.
Sporophylls in sessile spikes, compact or separated; sporangia axillary on the sporophylls; spores
dimorphic. A genus of 600-700 species, mostly tropical.
1. Selaginella willdenovii (Desv. ex Poir.) Baker,
Gard. Chron. 1867: 783, 950. 1867.
Fig. 12. D-G
BASIONYM: Lycopodium willdenovii Desv. ex Poir.
Clambering herb, 6-10 m in length. Stems
brittle, with numerous secondary branches up to
50 cm long, these again branched into short
branches with determinate growth, which attain
13 cm long and give the appearance of a 3pinnate,
triangular leaf. Primary and secondary
branches greenish or with a reddish shade. Leaves
oblong-ovate, imbricate and in two layers, the
upper layer of leaves ca. 1 mm long, the lower
DICOTYLEDONS
Key to the families of Dicotyledons
layer of leaves 3-4 mm long, the apex obtuse, the
base auriculate to subcordiform, sessile. Strobili
1.5-2 cm long, green, at the tips of the tertiary
branches.
Phenology: Collected in fertile condition in
February.
Status: Exotic, naturalized, uncommon.
Distribution: Native to tropical Asia and
Indonesia, introduced in Puerto Rico as an
ornamental where it is found to be naturalized
(Cayey, El Verde, Río Piedras, and Mayagüez). It
has also become naturalized throughout the
Neotropics.
Public forest: El Yunque.
1a. Plants without leaves or with inconspicuous, minute (< 2 mm long), ovate-triangular
leaves........................................................................................................................... Key 1
1b. Plants with well developed leaves (> 5 mm long), simple or compound ........................................ 2
2a. Leaves compound ..................................................................................................................... Key 2
2b. Leaves simple or unifoliolate .................................................................................................. Key 3