| | Ferns (Filicopsida) of Britain and Ireland |
“House holly-fern”.
Phanerophlebia falcata (L.f.) Copel., Polystichum falcatum (L.f.) Diels
Sporophyte. The rhizomes bearing scales. Plants with no clear distinction into fertile and sterile leaves.
Leaves aggregated terminally; to 50–120 cm long (? - “to 1.2” m); persistent; circinnate; compound; simply divided to complexly divided; once pinnate, with conspicuously divided pinnae (in that the asymmetrically triangular-ovate, entire to shortly, bluntly toothed pinnae usually have a broad, basal lobe on one side). The petioles shorter than the blades. Leaf blades in outline elliptic, or ovate; leathery. The longest pinnae around the middle of the blade; 6–10 cm long.
The sporangia protected; aggregated in sori. The sori sub-orbicular (scattered all over the abaxial surfaces of the pinnae); remaining discrete at maturity; with a true indusium. The indusia peltate.
Distribution and habitat. On walls and maritime rocks, and other shady places. Naturalized. Native to eastern Asia, popular in conservatories, etc., and widely naturalized, in western Britain from the Isles of Scilly to WC Scotland, SE England, Ireland and the Channel Isles.
Vice-county records. Britain: West Cornwall, East Cornwall, South Somerset, Dorset, South Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, East Kent, West Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, East Gloucestershire, West Gloucestershire, Cardiganshire, Caernarvonshire, South-east Yorkshire, Isle of Man, North Ebudes, Channel Islands. Ireland: East Cork.
Classification. Family Polypodiaceae (C.T.W.); Dryopteridaceae (Swale and Hassler); Dryopteridaceae (Stace). Order Dryopteridales (Swale and Hassler).
Illustrations. • Cyrtomium falcatum (D. Lubin, photo).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2004 onwards. Ferns (Filicopsida) of Britain and Ireland. Version: 5th August 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
