Culcita

Culcita
Culcita macrocarpa
Systematics
Department : Vascular plants (tracheophyta) Ferns Class : True ferns (Polypodiopsida) Order : Tree ferns (Cyatheales) Family : Culcitaceae Genre : Culcita
Scientific name of the  family
Culcitaceae
Pic. Serm.
Scientific name of the  genus
Culcita
C. Presl

Culcita is a genus of tree ferns (Cyatheales). It is the only genus in the Culcitaceae family.

features

Underside of leaf with sori from Culcita macrocarpa

Culcita macrocarpa , underside of the leaf

The rhizomes are creeping or ascending. They have a Solenostele and have jointed hair. The furrowed petioles show in cross section a channel-shaped vascular bundle . Along the furrow of the leaf stalk, chestnut to reddish brown glands run in double rows over almost the entire length. The petioles are as hairy towards the base as the midrib . The leaf blade is as long as the petiole and four to five pinnate, and always, although only weakly, hairy. The fawn to chestnut brown, silky, shiny hair is around 2 centimeters long, with the exception of those of the blade, which are only 0.5 to 1 centimeter long.

The nerves end freely and are often forked. The Sori are 3 mm wide, are terminal on the nerves and have paraphyses (sterile threads). The outer indusium is hardly distinguished from the leaf tissue, the inner one is clearly modified. The spores are tetrahedral-spherical and trilet (three-part scar).

The basic chromosome number is x = 66.

distribution

The genus occurs in the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, in southwest Europe and in the Neotropic .

Systematics

The genus is closely related to the Plagiogyriaceae . It was first described by Karel Bořivoj Presl in 1836 , the name Culcita (Latin for "pillow") refers either to the pillow-shaped Indusia or to the hairiness of the roots of the leaf stalks.

At times up to ten species were assigned to it, most of which today form the genus Calochlaena , which is widespread in the Australasian region . Today the genus Culcita only consists of two species:

• Culcita macrocarpa C. Presl : It is the type species of the genus. It occurs in the Azores, Tenerife, Madeira and Spain. In Portugal she is a neophyte.
• Culcita coniifolia (Hook.) Maxon : It occurs in South America.

literature

• Alan R. Smith, Kathleen M. Pryer, Eric Schuettpelz, Petra Korall, Harald Schneider, Paul G. Wolf: A classification for extant ferns. In: Taxon. Volume 55, No. 3, 2006, ISSN  0040-0262 , pp. 705-731, abstract, PDF file .
• Maria T. Murillo-P .: Pteridophyta - I. In: Polidoro Pinto, Gustavo Lozano (Ed.): Flora de Colombia. Vol. 9, 1988, pp. 9-10.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M. Christenhusz & E. von Raab-Straube (2013): Polypodiopsida. Datasheet Culcita In: Euro + Med Plantbase - the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity.

Web links

Commons : Culcita  - collection of images, videos and audio files