Culcita (plant)

Culcita is a genus of tree ferns ( Cyatheales ). It is the only genus of the family Culcitaceae.

Features

The rhizomes are creeping or ascending. They have a Solenostele and carry articulated hair. The furrowed petioles show in cross -section, a gutter-shaped vascular bundles. Along the furrow of the petiole pull in double row over almost the entire length chestnut to reddish-brown glands. The petioles are hairy as well as to the approach towards the midrib. The leaf blade is as long as the petiole, and pinnate four to five times, and always, albeit weak, hairy. The fallow to chestnut brown, silky hair is about 2 inches long, with the exception of the leaf blade, which are only 0.5 to 1 inches long.

The nerve end freely and are often branched dichotomously. The sori are 3 mm wide, are terminally on the nerves and have paraphyses (sterile filaments ). The outer indusium is hardly distinguished from the leaf tissue, the interior is significantly modified. The spores are tetrahedral - globose and trilet ( three-piece scar ).

The basic chromosome number is x = 66

Dissemination

The genus occurs in the Azores, Madeira, the Canary Islands, in south-west Europe and in the Neotropics.

System

The genus is closely related to the Plagiogyriaceae. It was first described in 1836 by Karel Bořivoj Presl, the name Culcita ( Latin for " pillow " ) refers either to the pillow-shaped indusia or the pubescence of the approaches of the petioles.

At times, you have been assigned up to ten species, the majority of which form the common room in the Australasian genus Calochlaena today. Today the genus Culcita consists only of two types:

  • Macrocarpa C. Presl Culcita ( type species, Europe, Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira)
  • Culcita coniifolia ( Hook. ) Maxon (South America)

Documents

  • Alan R. Smith, Kathleen M. Pryer, Eric Schuettpelz, Petra coral, Harald Schneider, Paul G. Wolf: A classification for extant ferns. In: taxon. Volume 55, No. 3, 2006, ISSN 0040-0262, pp. 705-731, Abstract, PDF file.
  • Maria T. Murillo -P:. Pteridophyta - I. In: Polidoro Pinto, Gustavo Lozano (eds.): Flora de Colombia. Vol 9, 1988, pp. 9-10.
  • Tree Ferns
  • Cyatheales
Leptosporangiate fern Stele (biology) Sorus
209098
de