A reply:
"Yes, this is one of the dozen species of "Silver Fern" that occur in
India. There are far fewer species present in Madhya Pradesh, of which
Aleuritopteris bicolor and Aleuritopteris anceps are the wider spread
ones. This is A. bicolor, which is the commonest and most widespread
species in India, also having a surprisingly wide altitude range in the
Himalaya. You can see the typically long, mostly scaleless stipe and,
though curled up, the lowest pinna is long - so when in growing state
during the monsoon the lamina is markedly deltate ["deltoid" is a three
dimensional triangle, not 2-D] - and as the lowest basiscopic pinnule of
the frond is also very long, the lamina is deltate-pentagonal.
It is a nice photo to see in its dry state, like many cheilanthoid
ferns, and in such a fine dense stand of it - now what is the chance of
revisiting that very same stand now, during monsoon time and photographing
it again from the same exact spot? The two photos together would be
spectacular and would show its "resurrecting" properties - from which,
incidentally, it has occasionally been suggested that it could represent
the fabulous Sanjeevani (though Selaginella bryopteris etc. are more
commonly thought to be the same).
In India A. bicolor was often misnamed as A. farinosa - an
Afro-Arabaian species not present in Asia. I think this is more likely to
have been what Dr. Pankaj must have been thinking of, because A. argentea
is a Chinese and N.E. Asian species, which was not known from India apart
from a single collection of Hooker's from the Khasi Hills, which was very
probably mislabelled in error for a specimen from later in his journey, up
in north Sikkim (as it occurs here and there over the northern border in
Tibet). I was very surprised to discover it in the high dry area of N.W.
Bhutan a couple of years ago - near Thimphu, where it had long been
overlooked and was effectively unknown in the Indo-Himalaya before, at C.
2700 metres - in our region it is a Sino-Tibetan species, which could
definitely not occur in C. India, but is common in N. China in cold dry
areas, such as around Beijing. So no, definitely not A. argentea - one
cannot simply translate the English name (for the whole group, plus
Pityrogramma) into Latin and guess it to be A. argentea. One can see
distributions of Silver Fern species (not quite complete - I forgot a
couple areas for a couple of species) in my paper on them in the Fern Gaz.
(2010), and other details in my book revising Indian Pteridophytes
"Taxonomic Revision of Three Hundred Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes
with a Revised India Census List" (2008) Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh,
Dehra Dun,which I hope may help disseminate generally accurate information.
Best wishes,
Chris Fraser-Jenkins, Kathmandu."
Thankls a lot, Dr. Cris.
On 9 August 2012 14:29, jmgarg1 <[email protected]> wrote:
> Forwarding again for Id confirmation or otherwise please.
>
> Some earlier relevant feedback:
>
> “Yes Neha
>
> This does *look like Silver fern*, *may be Cheilanthes argentea*!
> Pankaj”
>
>
>
> “Yes even to me *look like Silver fern*” from HS ji.
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Neha Singh <[email protected]>
> Date: 23 December 2011 14:05
> Subject: [efloraindia:100305] Is it Silver fern ? - Flora of Madhya Pradesh
> To: efloraofindia <[email protected]>
>
>
> These dried ferns were photographed in Jungle at Betul, MP. They were
> growing on rocky hill slope and covering a large area.
> Looked like silver fern or tattoo fern.
> Will b thankful for a botanical name.
>
> Regards
> Neha Singh
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> With regards,
> J.M.Garg
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1
> 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
> The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a *thousand species*&
> eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged
> alphabetically & place-wise):
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use
> them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.
> For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora,
> please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group:
> http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1900 members &
> 1,23,300 messages on 31/7/12) or Efloraofindia website:
> https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database
> of more than 7000 species).
> Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of
> India'.
>
>
--
With regards,
J.M.Garg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1
'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a *thousand species* &
eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged
alphabetically & place-wise):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use them
for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.
For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora,
please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group:
http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1900 members &
1,23,300 messages on 31/7/12) or Efloraofindia website:
https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database
of more than 7000 species).
Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of
India'.
--
