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Lecanopteris carnosa - North Sulawesi


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Lecanopteris carnosa (Reinw.) Carl Ludwig von Blume published in Enumeratio Plantarum Javae 1828.  Basionym Onychium carnosum Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt published in Sylloge Plantarum Novarum 2, 3, 1828, (actually before the end of Nov 1825.)  Along with L. balgooyi, L celebica, L. luzonensis and L. pumila, it constitutes five members of the pumila group.

  Description:  Rhizome creeping, hollow, much branched, 1.5-2.5 cm Ø covered with branched glandular hairs, hollow phyllopodia prominent, some with coralloid excrescences arising from undeveloped fronds.  (Perhaps there are two species here?)  Fronds 30-90 cm (12-36") long, mid-green, chartaceous, glabrous, deeply pinnatifid, bases winged, tips of lobes rounded,  Sori deeply sunk on orbicular extra-marginal lobes 2-3 mm long.

  Habitats:  Lower hill to mid montane, either closed or disturbed forests and regrowth savannahs (plantations?); hence, having a generalist ecology.  L. carnosa (and its sister species L. celebica) are abundant in Sulawesi, differing only in the nature of their aborted phyllopodia, (some?) L. carnosa bear “coralloid excrescences” (see photos) but L. celebica has distinct spines.

  Range:  Endemic to the tip of the long, narrow, clockwise curving, northeast peninsula on Sulawesi Island where it obviously occurs with L. lomarioides because Dr Andreas Wistuba has photographed both species in the same tree (see photos.)  Records: North Sulawesi; Bolaang Mongondow Regency; Gunung (Mt.) Mahawu, at 900 m (2953 ft.).  Mt Mahawu volcano has a popular walking track taking only about 30 minutes to ascend from Rurukan village about 5 k (3.1 miles) from downtown Tomohon City.

  Notes:  Plants of this species photographed by Dr. Wistuba on Sulawesi Island the type location, are adorned with tiny, bizarre, corkscrew spikes, presumably the coralloid excrescences in Gay (1994.)  They certainly raise questions about possible evolutionary advantages if any.  Dr Wistuba reports that some specimens circulating in Europe under this name do not posses these strange corkscrew spikes; therefore, they may be misnamed or perhaps a new species. (see www.wistuba.com/)  However, only some plants in the type description are reported to have coralloid excrescences.  Perhaps we have two extremely similar species in addition to spiny L. celebica.

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Lecanopteris carnosa (Reinw.) Carl Ludwig von Blume published in Enumeratio Plantarum Javae 1828.  Basionym Onychium carnosum Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt published in Sylloge Plantarum Novarum 2, 3, 1828, (actually before the end of Nov 1825.)  Along with L. balgooyi, L celebica, L. luzonensis and L. pumila, it constitutes five members of the pumila group.

  Description:  Rhizome creeping, hollow, much branched, 1.5-2.5 cm Ø covered with branched glandular hairs, hollow phyllopodia prominent, some with coralloid excrescences arising from undeveloped fronds.  (Perhaps there are two species here?)  

 

That's exactly my assumption.

Unfortunately all attempts to get the type description were without success. I only have the paper of Gay et al. 

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It can POSSIBLY be read online here.

Basionym Onychium carnosum Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt published in Sylloge Plantarum Novarum 2, 3, 1828,

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=IlE-AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en_GB&pg=GBS.PA3

or here

Lecanopteris carnosa (Reinw.) Carl Ludwig von Blume published in Enumeratio Plantarum Javae 1828.

http://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Enumeratio_plantarum_Javae_et_insularum.html?id=9chaAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y

Pages 120/121

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This is the translation from the Latin of the second article Derrick listed in message #4 of this thread.  The question marks are where Greek letters for the Greek words "disk" and "fern" were unrecognizable to the software doing the copying

 

 

LECANOPTERIS *
 
Onychium, Reinwdt
 
Sori subround, solitary, large, hidden at the apex of lacinate fronds.  Indusium absent.

 

OBS. Cl. Reinwardt first named this genus Onychium (in Regensb, Bot. Zeit. Syll. 1825), which was previously classified by Cl. Kaulfuss as a fern genus, to which it clearly does not belong;  afterwards the name was changed to Lecanopteris, from ? ? ? ? ? ? – disc and ?? ? ? ? ? ? – fern, due the sori in sharp incisures imbedded in the fronds. – Because of  these characteristics, and given the perculiar growth habit of this plant, this genus seems to us to be very different from the Polypodiis. 

 

Fronds strongly pinnatifid, growing from a large, fleshy rhizome which, based on our experience, is observed in very few ferns, and in none of the Polypodii species.

 

1 Lecanopteris carnosa *
 
Grows in the Moluccas

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This is the translation from Latin of the first article Derrick posted in message #4 of this thread.  If either of these translated articles represents the original description of Lecanopteris carnosa they are sure weak compared to descriptions of other species,- for example the ant-plants that Beccari described.

 

 

1. Onychium.  Sori subround, solitary, large, hidden at the apex of lacinate fronds.  Indusium absent.

 

   Species. Onychium carnosum. - Rhizome fleshy. Fronds pinnatifid

 

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This is the translation from Latin of the first article Derrick posted in message #4 of this thread.  If either of these translated articles represents the original description of Lecanopteris carnosa they are sure weak compared to descriptions of other species,- for example the ant-plants that Beccari described.

 

 

 

 

 

I think without having seen the holotype, it will be very difficult to say which is which for sure.

However my assumption is that Gay et al. mix two species...

 

All the best

Andreas 

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Here is the holotype of Lecanopteris carnosa.  This sheet is in the Leiden Herbarium.   Also pictured here is an isotype from the British Museum.  In addition I saw, but do not have a photo of, a second isotype at Leiden. Like the two pictured here the only plant material on the sheet was fronds, no rhizomes on any of the sheets.

post-22-0-05164800-1394750349.jpg

post-22-0-50371100-1394750535_thumb.jpg

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Excellent work Frank. It would seem that the L. carnosa description needs to be clarified plus perhaps another description for a completely new species presumably with similar leaves but differing rhizome details.  Is there accurate provenance information available for plants in cultivation that would permit such typification or would it require another trip to Sulawesi?

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