| Pteridophyte | Literature for Pityrogramma calomelanos
Flora of Australia, vol. 48. 1998 Tryon et al. 1975; Lorence & Wagner 2019.. |
| Pteridaceae | Bibliography |
| Pityrogramma calomelanos | |
Common name(s): silver fern, silverback fern |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to the Americas from the Caribbean region south to Argentina; now naturalized in many tropical parts of the world.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Elevation | 0-1000 m |
|
| Habit |
Terrestrial. Rhizomes erect, scaly at apex; scales light brown, lanceolate, to 5 mm long, 0.5 mm wide, margin entire. |
|
| Leaves |
Fronds densely clustered, erect-spreading, to 95 cm long; stipe 15-50 cm long, grooved and ridged adaxially; blade usually shorter than the stipe, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 15-45 cm long, 6-27 cm wide, mostly 2-pinnate-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, lowermost pinnae the largest, dark green, glossy above, below with a white waxy, powdery indumentum, rarely glabrous, subcoriaceous to chartaceous, pinnae stalked. |
|
| Sori |
Sporangia dark, scattered along veins of the fertile segments, when mature seen as dark lines through the white indumentum. |
|
| Contributor |
David Lorence, co-author K. R. Wood |
