Bird's Foot Cliffbrake
Pellaea mucronata
Summary 7
Pellaea mucronata is a species of fern known by the common name Bird's foot cliffbrake.
Description 8
Stems compact, ascending, stout, 5--10 mm diam.; scales bicolored, linear-subulate, 0.1--0.3 mm wide, centers black, thick, margins brown, thin, erose-dentate. Leaves monomorphic, clustered on stem, 7--45 cm; croziers sparsely villous. Petiole dark brown, lustrous, flattened to slightly grooved adaxially, without prominent articulation lines. Blade ovate-deltate, (2--)3-pinnate proximally, 4--18 cm wide; rachis brown throughout, straight, shallowly grooved adaxially, usually glabrous. Pinnae perpendicular to rachis to strongly ascending, not decurrent on rachis, usually with 9--40 ultimate segments; costae straight, 10--70 mm, much longer than ultimate segments. Ultimate segments narrowly oblong, 2--12 mm, leathery, glabrous; margins recurved to strongly revolute on fertile segments, usually covering more than 1/2 abaxial surface, borders greenish, usually dentate; apex mucronate. Veins of ultimate segments obscure. Sporangia short-stalked, containing 64 spores, intermixed with abundant farina-producing glands.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Derrick Coetzee, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/29507259@N02/3983163459
- (c) Barry Breckling, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0510/0537.jpeg
- (c) Barry Breckling, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0611/1386.jpeg
- (c) Barry Breckling, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0611/1387.jpeg
- (c) Brent Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/0404/0556.jpeg
- (c) Keir Morse, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://calphotos.berkeley.edu/imgs/512x768/0000_0000/1208/1282.jpeg
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellaea_mucronata
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4928024
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- Calflora
- CalPhotos
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- Jepson eFlora
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- OregonFlora.org
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- World Flora Online
