Myriopteris wrightii

Myriopteris wrightii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Polypodiophyta
Class:	Polypodiopsida
Order:	Polypodiales
Family:	Pteridaceae
Genus:	Myriopteris
Species:	M. wrightii
Binomial name
Myriopteris wrightii (Hook.) Grusz & Windham

Myriopteris wrightii, formerly known as Cheilanthes wrightii, is a species of cheilanthoid fern with the common name Wright's lipfern. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

Description

Myriopteris wrightii grows from a long creeping rhizome that is 1 to 3 mm in diameter with brown scales often deciduous on older portions of stem. The leaves are clustered to somewhat scattered and 4 to 25 cm long and 1 to 4 cm wide. As the fronds first emerge, their vernation is circinate (tightly coiled). The leaf petiole is brown and grooved adaxially (upper side). The leaf color is medium green, sometimes with a silvery or bluish cast. The leaf blade is lanceolate to ovate-deltate in shape and 2-pinnate-pinnatifid at the base. The ultimate leaflets are oblong to linear with the largest 3 to 7 mm in length, and hairless on both upper and lower sides. The leaflets curl under at their edges to form a false indusium. The sori are discontinuous and concentrated on interrupted lateral lobes.

Range and habitat

Myriopteris wrightii is native to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, and northern Mexico. It grows on rocky slopes and ledges, usually on igneous substrates, at elevations from 300 to 2000 meters.

References

Works cited

• Grusz, Amanda L.; Windham, Michael D. (2013). "Toward a monophyletic Cheilanthes: The resurrection and recircumscription of Myriopteris (Pteridaceae)". PhytoKeys (32): 49–64. doi:10.3897/phytokeys.32.6733. PMC 3881352. PMID 24399906.