Taxon Spotlight: Woodwardia areolata

I’ve decided to start using journal entries to provide information about various species found in the park and how to identify them. I’ll be doing this when I’ve got time and not on any particular schedule, but hopefully pretty often. Also, if you want to write a taxon spotlight for the project journal, please message me! I am not knowledgeable about every taxon found in the park, so having someone else cover the gaps in my knowledge would be very useful. Depending on your preference, I can either post it with credit or add you to a management position in the project so you can make journal posts yourself.

Today, our spotlight is on Woodwardia areolata, the netted chain fern! This is the only Woodwardia species in Florida to have dimorphic fronds and is sometimes put in the monotypic genus Lorinseria instead. The sterile frond of Woodwardia areolata is green and it is pinnatifid with a distinctly winged rachis. This winged rachis is the trait I look for the most when identifying this species if the fertile frond isn’t visible. You can see in this image how the leaf blade forms a line along the edge of the rachis instead of ending at the end of each pinna.

The other identifying feature you can look for with this species is its fertile frond. It is dark brown and curled up, looking pretty different from anything else I’ve seen in the park. These aren’t always present, but they’re a good identifying feature when they are present.

Finally, here are the observations of this species so far in the park! I couldn't figure out how to embed observations, so if anyone knows, please let me know. In the meantime, there's a link.

הועלה ב-מאי 14, 2023 10:00 אחה"צ על ידי ekimbro