Lophosoria quadripinnata (J.F.Gmel.) C.Chr.

Lehnert, Marcus & Kessler, Michael, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XXI. Dicksoniaceae, Phytotaxa 344 (1), pp. 69-74 : 72

Lophosoria quadripinnata (J.F.Gmel.) C.Chr. in Skottsberg, Nat. Hist. Juan Fernandez (Botany) 1: 16. 1920 [1921].

Range: — Mexico to Panama; Greater Antilles; Colombia to Venezuela and Bolivia (CO, CH, LP, SC); southeastern Brazil; Chile and Argentina.

Ecology: —Common along roadsides, trails, and ravines, doing best on moist, well-drained soil and in full sun; at 900–3350 m in Bolivia, 0–2000 m in eastern Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and at 100–2700 m in southern Mexico, Mesoamerica, and the Greater Antilles.

Notes: —This species is recognized by its glaucous or whitish abaxial lamina; no other Bolivian fern of this stature has this character. The laminar layer contains a mixture of triterpenes ( Tanaka et al. 1992) that dissolves when the specimens are treated with alcohol. The deposit of this layer may be of some taxonomic value (i.e., deposited only between veins or covering them; epidermal cell structure visible or not) and should be documented in the field if alcohol treatment is necessary. In addition, the specimens show a range of variation in indument characters. The most frequent hair variant has long, soft orange to reddish brown hairs several cm long overlying an appressed white undercoat of catenate, contorted hairs, which are ephemeral when exposed. From this morphology, there are deviations to both extremes. Some plants having only a thick layer of long soft, mostly white hairs (sometimes golden) and no discernable underlying indument. Other plants have all hairs spreading, stiff, and very dark red (at least on petioles); they leave a scabrous surface when abraded on petioles and rachises. Phylogenetic analyses do not resolve according to these morphotypes but rather cluster the samples loosely according to their provenance ( Noben et al. 2017).