Thanks, Chris ji ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Chris Fraser-Jenkins" <[email protected]> Date: 21 Dec 2016 9:34 a.m. Subject: Re: Fwd: [efloraofindia:259630] Fern for ID :: Thane :: ARKDEC20 To: "J.M. Garg" <[email protected]> Cc:
It's a very common and remarkably widespread adventive pteridaceous fern, Pityrogramma calomelanos, originally S. and C. American, but now spread allover the world. In India there are very few records in the 19th Century, but masses now. It seems to have come in via S. and peninsular India and Lanka - quite possibly by cultivation as an attractive ornamental fern, but now it is all over everywhere - even in the most remote inner-Himalayan valleys and up to highish altitude. It seems to be one of those whose spores are spread on clothing as people brush past it as it grows besides paths etc. There is a more attractive species too in South India, also a S. American adventive, as the name suggests, P. austroamericana, with golden-yellow farina beneath and a slightly smaller, less dissect frond - but not (yet!) spread to northern India, for reasons I don't know. And Sri Lanka also has two further adventive American species of the genus. Each species has different flavinoid compounds constituting the white or yellow farina (Prof. Eckhard Wollenweber's findings at Darmstadt University). As one can guess, it is no tree-fern! I imagine somebody who knew less than a little about ferns observed the white farina beneath the frond, saw the name Cyathea dealbata and put 2 and 2 together to make 5! The same trouble happens widely with our dozen or more white (or yellow)-powdered Aleuritopteris species, all of which pop up under the name "Aleuritopteris (Cheilanthes) albomarginata" in herbaria and publications - accounting for Plains and peninsular records, such as lower West Bengal foothills "A. albomarginata", whereas true A. albomarginata is rather a higher Himalayan-range species! As for "Polystichum auriculatum" - well, which species of Polystichum are not auriculate!?! Cheers, Chris F.-J., Kathmandu. ------------------------------ *From:* J.M. Garg <[email protected]> *To:* efloraofindia <[email protected]> *Cc:* Alka <[email protected]> *Sent:* Tuesday, 20 December 2016, 18:59 *Subject:* Fwd: [efloraofindia:259630] Fern for ID :: Thane :: ARKDEC20 Thanks, Alka ji ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Alka Khare" <[email protected]> Date: 20 Dec 2016 2:31 p.m. Subject: [efloraofindia:259630] Fern for ID :: Thane :: ARKDEC20 To: "efloraofindia" <[email protected]> Cc: Hello friends This fern was found in a cultivated garden in Thane in December 2016. Name provided was Cyathea dealbata. Requested to please validate. Thanks and regards Alka Khare -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to indiantreepix+unsubscribe@ googlegroups.com <[email protected]>. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] . Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/ group/indiantreepix <https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/ optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
