2024 Edition • Donate • Get the App • Cite this Page
X

Colors

Data mode

Account

Login
Sign up

Support FSUS...

We've finished our 2024 fundraiser. Many thanks to those who have given! It's not too late to support us (click here)...

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Pellaea

Copy permalink to share

1 Petiole straw-colored, tan, or gray, not lustrous; rhizome scales lanceolate to ovate, > 0.3 mm wide.
1 Petiole dark brown to black, lustrous; rhizome scales linear or subulate, < 0.3 mm wide.
  2 Petioles terete, glabrous or pubescent; rhizome scales uniformly orangish-brown, entire.
    3 Petioles and rachises sparsely to densely pubescent, dull; pinnae long-stalked, those toward the base of the leaf on stalks 5-15 mm long; [of a variety of substrates, including non-calcareous]
    3 Petioles and rachises glabrous to very sparsely pubescent, shiny; pinnae sessile or short-stalked, those toward the base of the leaf on stalks 0-4 (-6) mm long; [strictly of calcareous substrates]
      4 Spores 60-72 μm in diameter; spores 32 per sporangium
      4 Spores 38-52 μm in diameter; spores 64 per sporangium
  2 Petioles slightly grooved or flattened, glabrous; rhizome scales with a blackish median stripe and pale brown margins, obscurely toothed.
        5 Ultimate leaf segments thin in texture, overall flattish (though the margins revolute), acute to acuminate at the apex, but lacking a mucro or cusp.
          6 Leaves mostly 1-2-pinnate, broadly deltate-triangular in outline
          6 Leaves mostly 2-3-pinnate, lanceolate or narrowly triangular in outline
        5 Ultimate leaf segments leathery, strongly 'rolled', mucronate at the apex.
             7 Leaves oblong to elliptic in outline; pinnae either ternate toward the base of the leaf and simple toward the tip of the leaf, or all simple; primary leaf segments 5-10× as long as wide (unflattened); [known from outcrops in the upper Piedmont of SC]
             7 Leaves usually narrowly triangular in outline; pinnae usually pinnate toward the base, becoming ternate to simple toward the tip; primary leaf segments 3-5× as long as wide (unflattened); [known from outcrops in Piedmont of NC]