| | Ferns (Filicopsida) of Britain and Ireland |
“Hay-scented Buckler-fern”.
Sporophyte. The rhizomes short, stout; ascending to erect; bearing scales (densely scaly, with broad, soft scales). Plants with no clear distinction into fertile and sterile leaves.
Leaves aggregated terminally; to 15–60(–75) cm long; persistent (finally decaying from the apex downwards); circinnate; compound; complexly divided; tripinnate with conspicuously divided ultimate pinnules (to almost 4-pinnate, the ultimate pinnules lobed to almost pinnate). Pinnae 15–20 on each side of the leaf. The petioles shorter than the blades to about as long as the blades (dark brown throughout, with few or numerous narrow-lanceolate, lacerate, uniformly coloured reddish-brown scales); about 0.5–1 x the length of the blade (more than half as long); vascularised by several discrete strands (derived via several leaf traces). Petiolar scales not golden brown (few, pale). Leaf blades in outline ovate-triangular. The longest pinnae the lowermost; 5–15 cm long. The pinnae not decreasing markedly in length basipetaly, the basal pinnae not or scarcely shorter than the longest pair. The lowest pinna with the lowest pinnule on the lower side much longer than the lowest one on the upper side, and often longer than the one or two adjoining it as well. The venation of the lamina open.
The sporangia superficial; protected; aggregated in sori. The sori sub-orbicular (about 0.5–1 mm in diameter, forming a row down each side of the midrib of the segment); remaining discrete at maturity; with a true indusium. The indusia reniform and attached at the indentation; fringed with sessile glands, and irregularly toothed. Paraphyses present in the sporangia. The mature spores monolete; with a perispore.
Distribution and habitat. Woods, ravines and hedgebanks, in moist shady places. Local in Ireland and W Britain from W Cornwall to the Outer Hebrides and Orkney, scarce in E Britain except frequent in acid habitats in Kent and Sussex.
Vice-county records. Britain: West Cornwall, East Cornwall, South Devon, North Devon, South Somerset, South Wiltshire, Dorset, South Hampshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, East Kent, West Kent, West Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Glamorgan, Breconshire, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, Montgomeryshire, Merionethshire, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Anglesey, South Lancashire, West Lancashire, North-east Yorkshire, South-west Yorkshire, Mid-west Yorkshire, South Northumberland, Westmorland, Cumberland, Isle of Man, Kirkcudbrightshire, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire, West Perthshire, Mid Perthshire, East Perthshire, South Aberdeenshire, North Aberdeenshire, East Inverness-shire, West Inverness-shire, Argyll Main, Dunbartonshire, Clyde Isles, Kintyre, South Ebudes, Mid Ebudes, North Ebudes, West Ross, West Sutherland, Caithness, Outer Hebrides, Orkney islands. Ireland: South Kerry, North Kerry, West Cork, Mid Cork, East Cork, Waterford, South Tipperary, Limerick, Clare, North Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Leix, South-east Galway, West Galway, North-east Galway, Offaly, Wicklow, West Meath, Longford, Roscommon, East Mayo, West Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Louth, Monaghan, Fermanagh, East Donegal, West Donegal, Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Antrim, Londonderry.
Classification. Family Polypodiaceae (C.T.W.); Dryopteridaceae (Swale and Hassler); Dryopteridaceae (Stace). Order Dryopteridales (Swale and Hassler).
D. x pseudoabbreviata Jermy = D. oreades x D. aemula.
Illustrations. • D. aemula: as Lastrea aemula, Eng. Bot. 1858 (1886). • D. aemula: Sowerby and Johnson (1859). • 9 Dryopteridaceae of Britain and Ireland (inter alia). Thelypteridaceae. 1721, Oreopteris limbosperma. DRYOPTERIDACEAE. 1722, Dryopteris filix-mas; 1723, Dryopteris submontana; 1724, Dryopteris cristata; 1725, Dryopteris carthusiana; 1726, Dryopteris dilatata; 1727, Dryopteris aemula. 1728, Polystichum lonchitis; 1729 and 1730, Polystichum aculeatum; 1731, Polystichum setiferum. Cystopteridaceae. 1732, Cystopteris fragilis; 1733, C. fragilis var. angustata; 1734, C. fragilis var. dentata; 1735, Cystopteris alpina; 1736, Cystopteris montana; 1737, Cystopteris dickieana. Athyriaceae. 1738, Athyrium filis-femina. Aspleniaceae. Asplenium fontanum; 1740, Asplenium obovatum subsp. lanceolatum. From Sowerby and Johnson (1863, the family assignments following Swale and Hassler).
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’.
