Sunday, March 2, 2008

Hemionitis


 

Another beautiful fern from Costa Rica, this is Hemionitis palmata, in the Pteridaceae. These fertile fronds were about 3.5 inches across, and shaped a little differently from the non-fertile frond shown at top left (which was also from a different plant). The non-fertile fronds seem to be mostly three-lobed, while the fertile fronds we saw were five-lobed. They are all very soft on the upper (adaxial) surface. The sori lack indusia, and typically form this linear, netted pattern. The common name of this species is 'starfern'.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

interesting plant leaves.

Shireen said...

do you know where i could purchase the plant or spores? It's gorgeous!
thanks,
shireen