Trichomanes melanotrichum Schltdl.

Hymenophyllaceae, Henk Beentje. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2008

Type

Type: South Africa, Cape Peninsula, Plettenberg Bay, ± 1825, Mundt & Maire s.n. (B!, holo.; HAL 37269, P, iso., not found)

Morphology General Habit

Lithophyte or epiphyte.

Vegetative Multiplication Rhizomes

Rhizome creeping, branched, filiform, with dense black or very dark brown hairs to 1 mm long

Morphology Leaves

Fronds spaced 0.3–4.5 cm apart, sometimes pendulous but more often erect; stipe 5–35 mm long, compressed, narrowly winged in upper half, glabrous except for base or with almost pectinate hairs on lower wing margins; lamina usually dark green, narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, 0.8–14 × 0.8–3.5 cm, 2–3-pinnatifid; rachis winged; pinnae to 15 on each side, to 2.2 × 1 cm, folded longitudinally when drying; pinnules 5–7, ultimate lobes to 8 × 1 mm, rounded; veins with minute brown scales

Morphology Reproductive morphology Sori

Sori 1–7 per pinna, throughout the lamina, mostly axillary, sometimes bent above the plane of the leaf; indusium conical to campanulate, 1.5–2(–2.5) mm long, 1–1.2 mm in diameter, narrowly winged or not winged, mouth dilated, not 2-lipped; receptacle exserted to 2(–6) mm

Figures

Fig. 9: 5-7, p21

Ecology

Moist forest and then in moist and shady sites, occasionally in riverine or drier type forest; on tree-trunks, moist rock-faces, mossy rocks, rarely on moist earth banks; may be locally common; (?200–)750–2650 m

Conservation

Least concern; widespread

Note

A specimen from Kenya, Shimba Hills ( van Someren 114, Mar. 1941) has no altitude indicated, but must be from a lower altitude than all other material collected. Burrows and Kornaś recognize Trichomanes inopinatum (Pic.Serm.) Burrows, close to melanotrichum but with differences listed below: melanotrichum rhizome hairs black, shiny; lower part of stipe wing with black, articulated hairs; stipe winged all along. inopinatum rhizome hairs dark brown to blackish; stipe glabrous to sparsely set with brown clavate hairs [true]; stipe winged in upper part only [true] I have seen the type, and I prefer to treat this as a synonym rather than as a taxon in its own right. There are minute differences but ‘form’ is the most I would agree to. Similarly Trichomanes pyxidiferum forma major of Taton = Trichomanes inopinatum var. majus of Kornaś, is hardly different.

Distribution

Flora districts: U1 U2 U3 U4 K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 T2 T3 T 4 , T6 T7 T8 Range: Sierra Leone to Ethiopia and south to South Africa; Madagascar and Mascarene Islands