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Pellaea breweri

(Brewer's Cliff-Brake)

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Brewer's Cliff-Brake, Brewer's Cliffbrake

Description

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Genus Pellaea

Plants usually on rock. Stems compact to long-creeping, ascending to horizontal, usually branched; scales brown to tan or often bicolored with dark, central stripe and lighter margins , linear-subulate to lanceolate (rarely ovate ), margins dentate , erose, or entire. Leaves monomorphic to somewhat dimorphic , clustered to widely scattered , 2--100 cm. Petiole brown, black, straw-colored, or gray, rounded , flattened or with single longitudinal groove adaxially, glabrous or pubescent , usually with a few scales at base , with single vascular bundle. Blade linear to ovate-deltate, 1--4-pinnate proximally, leathery or rarely somewhat herbaceous, abaxially glabrous, pubescent, or with hairlike scales scattered along costae, adaxially usually glabrous, dull , not striate ; rachis straight or flexuous . Ultimate segments of blade usually stalked and free from costae, elliptic , lanceolate to linear, usually more than 4 mm wide; base rounded, truncate , or cordate; stalks often lustrous and dark colored ; segment margins reflexed to form confluent , poorly defined, false indusia extending entire length of segment. Veins of ultimate segments free or rarely anastomosing, usually obscure , pinnately branched and divergent distally. False indusia greenish to whitish, narrow, clearly marginal , often concealing the sporangia. Sporangia scattered along veins near segment margins, containing 32 or 64 spores, often intermixed with glands , farina-producing. Spores brown to tan (rarely yellow), tetrahedral-globose, rugose or cristate , lacking prominent equatorial ridge . x = 29.

Species ca. 40 (15 in the flora ) : most in the Western Hemisphere, a small number in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Australia.

Pellaea in the broad sense is a diverse , poorly defined assemblage of xeric-adapted ferns (A. R. Smith 1981) . Relationships among the North American, neotropical , and Eastern Hemisphere species are unclear, and it seems likely that the genus, as broadly construed by E. B . Copeland (1947) and R. M. Tryon and A. F. Tryon (1982), is polyphyletic. The species included here in Pellaea belong to a closely knit alliance that is usually recognized as a distinct section (sect. Pellaea ) . Although the inclusion of P . bridgesii in this group has been questioned (A. F. Tryon 1957), W. H. Wagner Jr. et al. (1983) have shown that the aberrant morphology of this species is simply an extreme expression of evolutionary trends commonly encountered in sect. Pellaea .

Among Western Hemisphere cheilanthoid ferns, species of Pellaea show clear morphologic, chromosomal, and biochemical affinities to Argyrochosma and members of the Cheilanthes alabamensis complex . In fact, the glabrous species of Argyrochosma ( A . jonesii and A . microphylla ) are commonly misidentified as Pellaea . These species are easily recognizable, however, because they have a combination of concolored stem scales and small ultimate segments (less than 4 mm wide) .[1]

Physical Description

Species Pellaea breweri

Stems compact , ascending , stout, 5--10 mm diam.; scales uniformly reddish brown, linear-subulate, 0.1--0.3 mm wide, thin, margins sinuous , nearly entire. Leaves monomorphic , clustered on stem, 2.5--20 cm; croziers sparsely villous . Petiole brown, lustrous , rounded adaxially, with prominent articulation lines near base . Blade linear-oblong, pinnate-pinnatifid proximally, 1--4 cm wide; rachis brown proximally, green distally, straight, rounded adaxially, glabrous to sparsely villous. Pinnae ascending or perpendicular to rachis, decurrent on rachis, deeply 2-lobed (mitten-shaped) near base of leaf; costae absent. Ultimate segments lanceolate-deltate, 5--25 mm, herbaceous, glabrous; margins recurved on fertile segments, covering less than 1/2 abaxial surface, borders whitish, erose-denticulate; apex obtuse or rounded. Veins of ultimate segments evident. Sporangia sessile or subsessile , containing 64 spores, not intermixed with farina-producing glands . 2 n = 58. Sporulating summer--fall. [source]

Pellaea breweri is distinguished from other North American taxa (except for some populations of P. glabella ) by the presence of prominent articulation lines near the base of the petiole. The leaves are easily detached, and many herbarium specimens consist of separate leaves and stems, the latter covered with petiole bases of approximately equal length . [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Flower Color: inconspicuous, none

Habitat

Cliffs and rocky slopes , on a variety of substrates including granite and limestone; 1600--3800 m [2].

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Taxonomy

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Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Pellaea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 206 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

P. abyssinica · P. acutiloba · P. adiantoides · P. alabamensis · P. allosuroides · P. andromedaefolia · P. andromedaefolia f. gracilis · P. andromedaefolia f. pubescens · P. andromedaefolia var. gracilis · P. andromedaefolia var. pubescens · P. andromediaefolia · P. andromedifolia (Coffee Cliffbrake) · P. angulosa · P. angustifolia · P. angustifolia var. cuneata · P. angustifolia var. elongata · P. arsenii · P. articulata · P. aspera · P. aspera f. compacta · P. atropurpurea (Purple-Stem Cliff-Brake) · P. atropurpurea f. bifida · P. atropurpurea f. glabella · P. atropurpurea occidentalis · P. atropurpurea var. cristata · P. atropurpurea var. glabella · P. atropurpurea var. latifolia · P. atropurpurea var. minima · P. atropurpurea var. mucronata · P. atropurpurea var. nana · P. atropurpurea var. occidentalis · P. atropurpurea var. punctata · P. atropurpurea var. venosa · P. auriculata · P. boivini · P. boivinii · P. boivinii var. viridis · P. bojeri · P. bongardiana · P. brachyptera (Sierra Cliff-Brake) · P. brandegeei · P. breweri (Brewer's Cliff-Brake) · P. bridgesii (Bridges' Cliff-Brake) · P. burkeana · P. calidirupium · P. calomelanos · P. cambodiensis · P. cardiomorpha · P. chilensis · P. columbina · P. compacta · P. concolor · P. connectens · P. consobrina · P. contigua · P. cordata · P. cordata var. flexuosa · P. cordatus · P. cordifolia (Heartleaf Cliffbrake) · P. crenata · P. crenulans · P. cuneata · P. cymbiformis · P. dealbata · P. dealbata var. stuebeliana · P. densa · P. dolomiticola · P. doniana · P. dura · P. falcata (Australian Cliff Brake) · P. falcata var. denticulata · P. falcata var. falcata · P. falcata var. nana · P. fallax · P. ferruginea · P. flavens · P. flavescens · P. flexuosa · P. flexuosa var. sagittata · P. formosa · P. fumariaefolia · P. fumariifolia · P. gastonyi (Gastony's Cliffbrake) · P. geraniifolia · P. glabella (Smooth Cliff-Brake) · P. glabella glabella · P. glabella occidentalis (Western Dwarf Cliffbrake) · P. glabella simplex (Smooth Cliff-Brake) · P. glabella subsp. missouriensis (Missouri Cliffbrake) · P. glabella subsp. occidentalis (Western Dwarf Cliffbrake) · P. glabella subsp. simplex (Smooth Cliffbrake) · P. glaciogena (Cliffbrake) · P. glauca · P. gleichenioides · P. goudotii · P. gracilis · P. greggii · P. hastata · P. henryi · P. hirsuta

More Info

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Further Reading

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  • Gastony, G. J. 1988. The Pellaea glabella complex: Electrophoretic evidence for the derivations of the agamosporous taxa and a revised taxonomy. Amer. Fern J. 78: 44--67.
  • Tryon, A. F. 1957. A revision of the fern genus Pellaea section Pellaea. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 44: 125--193.
  • Tryon, A. F. 1968. Comparisons of sexual and apogamous races in the fern genus Pellaea. Rhodora 70: 1--24.

    • Notes

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    Contributors

    Data Sources

    Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 01, 2008:

    Identifiers

    Footnotes

    1. Michael D. Windham "Pellaea". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    2. "Pellaea breweri". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    Last Revised: 2009-07-27