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Notholaena candida (M. Martens & Galeotti) Hook. 1864

Quartz Cloakfern

Carl Rothfels
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Containing group: core Notholaena

Introduction

Notholaena candida, a species of limestone or igneous cliffs and outcrops, is widespread in Mexico and extends southward to Costa Rica. It has attractive triangular-to-pentagonalish glabrous leaves, and is thus a well-behaved member of the core Notholaena II clade. Notholaena candida is here treated in a restricted sense; N. copelandii is treated separately. The two taxa are often lumped (N. copelandii as N. candida var. copelandii), based primarily on a number of intermediate specimens from San Luis Potosí (Tryon, 1956). Those specimens aside, however, the two taxa show strong morphological differences, geographic isolation, different farina chemistry (Wollenweber, 1984), and significant DNA sequence divergence (Rothfels et al., 2008). I thus follow recent authors (Mickel and Smith, 2004; Windham, 1993a) in treating them as distinct species.

Mickel and Smith (2004) report specimens of N. candida with light yellow farina instead of the typical white; these individuals deserve further attention.

Characteristics

Notholaena candida is most likely to be confused not with another Notholaena, but rather with Cheilanthes farinosa. The Costa Rican specimens, for example, were long identified as Cheilanthes farinosa prior to the recognition of their true identity. The two species can be extremely similar in leaf shape, farina color (white), habit, and habitat, but the Cheilanthes has a very strongly differentiated paper-like false indusium, which the Notholaena lacks. See the N. copelandii page for morphological features distinguishing it from N. candida.

Other Names for Notholaena candida (M. Martens & Galeotti) Hook. 1864

References

Giauque, M. F. A. 1949. Wax glands and prothallia. American Fern Journal 39:33-35.

Hall, C. C. 1950. Notholaena copelandii, a newly recognized species of the Texano-Mexican region. American Fern Journal 40:178--187.

Mickel, J. T., and A. R. Smith. 2004. The Pteridophytes of Mexico. The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York.

NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer, Arlington, Virginia. www.natureserve.org/explorer/

Rothfels, C. J., M. D. Windham, A. L. Grusz, G. J. Gastony, and K. M. Pryer. 2008. Toward a monophyletic Notholaena (Pteridaceae): Resolving patterns of evolutionary convergence in xeric-adapted ferns Taxon 57:712-724.

Tryon, R. M. 1956. A revision of the American species of Notholaena. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 179:1-106.

Windham, M. D. 1993a. Notholaena. Pages 143--149 in Flora of North America (Flora of North American Editorial Committee, ed.) Oxford University Press, New York.

Windham, M. D., and G. Yatskievych. 2003. Chromosome studies of cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) from the western United States and Mexico. American Journal of Botany 90:1788-1800.

Wollenweber, E. 1984. Exudate flavonoids of Mexican ferns as chemotaxonomic markers. Rev. Latinoamer. Quim. 15:3-11.

Wollenweber, E., M. Dörr, and J. F. Stevens. 2001. A dihydroflavonol with taxonomic significance from the fern Notholaena sulphurea. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung 56:499-502.

Title Illustrations
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Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Notholaena candida
Location Costa Rica, Prov. de Guanacaste, Palo Verde National Park
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By C.J.Rothfels
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © Carl Rothfels
Scientific Name Notholaena candida
Location Costa Rica, Prov. de Guanacaste, Palo Verde National Park
Comments This photo is from the type population of N.revoluta.
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Identified By C.J.Rothfels
Life Cycle Stage sporophyte
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 2008 Carl Rothfels
About This Page

Carl Rothfels
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Carl Rothfels at

Page: Tree of Life Notholaena candida (M. Martens & Galeotti) Hook. 1864. Quartz Cloakfern. Authored by Carl Rothfels. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Rothfels, Carl. 2008. Notholaena candida (M. Martens & Galeotti) Hook. 1864. Quartz Cloakfern. Version 23 December 2008 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Notholaena_candida/133604/2008.12.23 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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