- IPNI Life Sciences Identifier (LSID)
- urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60452471-2
- Publication
- American Fern Journal; a quarterly devoted to ferns.
- Collation
- 98(4): 229 (-231; f.5E–K,7D)
- Date of Publication
- dt. 2008; issued 27 Mar 2009
- Family as entered in IPNI
- Grammitidaceae
Type Information
- Collector Team
- M. Lehnert 519
- Locality
- Prov. Carrasco: carretera Cochabamba-Villa Tunari, debajo de Corani, alt. 2750 m
- Type Herbaria
- holotype GOET
isotype LPB
isotype UC - Latitude
- 10° 10' S
- Longitude
- 65° 54' W
- Distribution Of Types
- Cochabamba (Bolivia, Western South America, Southern America)
Nomenclatural Notes
as 'michaelis'
Remarks
Protologue: The name honors both Michael Kessler, my mentor at Göttingen University, and Michael Sundue, a colleague from New York Botanic Garden, who first recognized this species as being distinct. Melpomene michaelis grows in wet montane forests at 2250–3450 m in Peru and Bolivia (Fig. 17A). A noteworthy character of Melpomene michaelis is the inconspicuous, sometimes partially absent hydathodes. In gross morphology, M. pilosissima is virtually identical to M. michaelis, but has always well-developed hydathodes and evenly distributed setiform/ciliform hairs on the abaxial laminar surface; there may be few hairs present in the sori, but they are not clustered here like it is the case in M. michaelis. Melpomene pilosissima occurs in Mesoamerica and the northern Andes and shows no geographical overlap with M. michaelis, which is confined to the centrals Andes. Ecologically, Melpomene michaelis prefers the epilithic habitat whereas M. pilosissima is mainly found as an epiphyte. The distribution of Melpomene michaelis overlaps with that of M. jimenezii, which—like M. michaelis—has setiform/ciliform hairs clustered in the sori. Apart from the larger size, M. jimenezii differs in having longer, more linear segments than M. michaelis and in lacking hydathodes, or having occasionally small hydathodes in some segments (vs. hydathodes inconspicuous but predominantly present in M. michaelis). It also lacks hairs between the sori on the abaxially laminar surface (vs. sparsely to densely hairy between the sori in M. michaelis), on the segments margins, and adaxial laminar surface (vs. sometimes with scattered hairs on margins and adaxial laminar surface).