- IPNI Life Sciences Identifier (LSID)
- urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60452476-2
- Publication
- American Fern Journal; a quarterly devoted to ferns.
- Collation
- 98(4): 245 (-249; f.11,12D)
- Date of Publication
- dt. 2008; issued 27 Mar 2009
- Family as entered in IPNI
- Grammitidaceae
Type Information
- Collector Team
- B. Øllgaard et al 34159
- Locality
- road Olmedo-Laguna San Marcos, E of the pass, alt. 3640 m
- Type Herbaria
- holotype AAU
isotype QCA - Latitude
- 7' N
- Longitude
- 77° 59' W
- Distribution Of Types
- Napo (Ecuador, Western South America, Southern America)
Remarks
Protologue: The name refers to the fact that this species has been found mainly on the slopes of volcanoes. Melpomene vulcanica grows in páramos and elfin forests at (2600–)3200–4500 m in Colombia and Ecuador (Fig. 12D). The size of the laminae and the thickness of the cell walls in the scales vary considerably in this species, and every extreme of one character can be found within the whole range of the other without apparent correlation to the life form. However, plants with large fronds seem to grow in sheltered spots, i.e., they are present in nearly all epiphytes, but also in terrestrial plants from rock gullies. Smaller scales with thick cell walls are found in terrestrial plants growing directly on soil; large scales with wide, iridescent lumina are produced if the rhizomes grow in thick moss layers, i.e., in all epiphytes and some terrestrial plants from páramos. However, the scales are always larger than in M. sklenarii, which is similar to the small forms of M. vulcanica. Rhizomes of Melpomene vulcanica are usually long-creeping and do not bear any developed fronds over a length of the apices. This clearly separates this species from M. pseudonutans, which has a rather compact growth (although the posterior parts of the rhizome persist and contribute greatly to the total length). Melpomene pseudonutans also has thicker rhizomes (usually more than 2.0 mm diam. vs. usually less than 1.5 mm in M. vulcanica), thicker, less hairy petioles (1.0–1.2(–1.8) mm vs. 0.6–1.0 mm), and long-obovate blades (vs. lanceolate). Other species with long-creeping rhizomes similar to those of M. vulcanica have hairs clustered in the sori, like M. personata, and/or the midveins not or only partially visible on the abaxial laminae, like M. flabelliformis and M. moniliformis.
Links
- Replaced synonym of
- Grammitis melpomene Christenh., Global Fl. 4: 46 (2018).