Schizaea

Schizaea is a small genus of specialized ferns in the family Schizaeaceae. Common names include curlygrass fern[1] and comb fern. Some species are very small and inconspicuous, and so may often be overlooked in nature. The genus is distinctive and not at all like the common conception of a fern, though it is still considered a true fern (leptosporangiate). The barren fronds (trophophylls) are grass-like, and the spore-bearing fertile frond (sporophyll) is similar, but with a small, pinnate fertile segment at its apex. The upper surface of the pinnules bear the sessile capsules.[2] Various of the roughly two dozen species have been reported from widely separated regions, including much of the tropical Old and New World, parts of the Eastern USA, Chile, the Falkland Islands, and various Pacific islands, including several islands of New Caledonia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.[3] In Africa at least two species are endemic to South Africa.[2]

Schizaea
Schizaea pectinata showing crozier, fertile fronds, and grass-like barren fronds
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Schizaeales
Family: Schizaeaceae
Genus: Schizaea
Sm.
Species

See text

Species
  • Schizaea amazonica (Christ) Takeuchi
  • Schizaea bifida Willd. -- Forked comb fern
  • Schizaea boninensis (Nakai) H. Ohba
  • Schizaea dichotoma (L.) Sm. -- Fan fern
  • Schizaea elegans (Vahl) Sw.
  • Schizaea fistulosa Labill. -- Comb fern, narrow comb fern, southern comb fern
  • Schizaea fluminensis Miers ex Sturm
  • Schizaea incurvata Schkuhr
  • Schizaea kikuzatonis M.Ogata
  • Schizaea malaccana Bak.
  • Schizaea montis-petrae Brade
  • Schizaea pacificans Mart.
  • Schizaea pectinata (L.) Sw.
  • Schizaea poeppigiana Sturm
  • Schizaea pseudodichotoma Bierh.
  • Schizaea pusilla Pursh -- Curly grass fern, eastern North America
  • Schizaea rhacoindusiata Bierh.
  • Schizaea rupestris R. Br.
  • Schizaea sprucei Hook. ex Bak.; Hook.
  • Schizaea stricta Lellinger
  • Schizaea tenella Kaulf.
  • Schizaea × diversispora Bierh.

References
  1. "Schizaea". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  2. Sim, Thomas Robertson (1915). The Ferns of South Africa. London & Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press.
  3. Brian Swale, Michael Hassler. Family Schizaeaceae, genus Schizaea. http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/fern/schizaea.htm

World species list for Schizaea: http://homepages.caverock.net.nz/~bj/fern/schizaea.htm


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