Melpomene moniliformis (Lag. ex Sw.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran

Smith, Alan R., Kessler, Michael, León, Blanca, Almeida, Thaís Elias, Jiménez-Pérez, Iván & Lehnert, Marcus, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XL. Polypodiaceae, Phytotaxa 354 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Melpomene moniliformis (Lag. ex Sw.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran , var. minor (Christ) Lehnert, Phytotaxa 5: 55. 2010.

Range: —Southern Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Colombia to Venezuela and Bolivia (CO, LP), southeastern Brazil (Rio de Janeiro).

Ecology: —Rare, known from five Bolivian collections; terrestrial and on rocks in punas, evergreen forests; 3400–4000 m.

Notes: —This taxon is nearly co-occuring with var. moniliformis . Lehnert (2013) indicated that its morphology may be an adptation to unfavorable ecological conditions, as it grows on mineral soil and rocks at high elevation in paramos and punas. Basically, var. minor is a smaller growth form of var. moniliformis , although Lehnert listed other minor morphological differences between the two, i.e., young petioles of var. moniliformis with denser, branched clavate hairs (vs. glabrous in var. minor ). Melpomene peruviana , which see for differences, another high-elevation paramo species, also grows with var. minor .