Flora of Southern California: Lycopods and Ferns

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Table of Contents

Brief Introduction to this Checklist
Checklist
Notes on Some Taxa

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Brief Introduction to this Checklist

See Flora of Southern California: Master Checklist for a more complete Introduction to this page.

The plants in this list are found on pages 109 to 134 in the printed JM2, with additional species found only in the online JM2 manual. See the notes below.

Click on the Scientific Name to get the JM2 online entry for each taxon, which includes:

• the JM2 keys and descriptions, with a list of all species found in a given genus or family, not just those found in southern California (no illustrations are online yet);

• a geographic map of the JM2 distribution;

• a plot of voucher locations, along with a shaded geographic area that fits the JM2 geographic and elevational distributions and hence indicates the potential geographic range for each taxon;

• a plot of elevation vs. latitude for vouchers, which is often a very instructive graph showing the change in the elevation range for each taxon with latitude; and

• a histogram of voucher collection by month, which often indicates when a taxon was in an identifiable state, either in bloom or in fruit.

Some links to the JM2 online entry will return no JM2 online entry, since hybrids, and the taxa mentioned as judgment-reserved taxa, are not yet entered into the JM2 name index. Those links may work in the future.

Click on the Common Name to get the Calphotos pictures. Since some taxa have no photos at Calphotos, those links will return no pictures. Be aware that the names in Calphotos are not synonymized, which means that if the name has changed in the JM2, all the Calphotos may still be under the JM1 name, and will not be retrieved by this link.

The column with header #Obs gives the number of observations in my database of each taxon from plant trail guides and floras that I've done.

The column #Lists gives the number of checklists that I've digitized that contain each taxon.

See Flora of Southern California: Master Checklist for some of the biases in those numbers.

Checklist

#	Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	#Obs	#Lists
Lycopods
1	Isoetaceae	Isoetes bolanderi	Bolander's quillwort	0	1
2	Isoetaceae	Isoetes howellii	Howell's quillwort	0	7
3	Isoetaceae	Isoetes howellii var. minima	Howell's quillwort	0	0
4	Isoetaceae	Isoetes nuttallii	Nuttall's quillwort	0	4
5	Isoetaceae	Isoetes orcuttii	Orcutt's quillwort	1	9
6	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella asprella	bluish spike-moss	5	19
7	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella bigelovii	Bigelow's spike-moss	27	62
8	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella cinerascens	ashy spike-moss	3	15
9	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella eremophila	desert spike-moss	30	19
10	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella leucobryoides	Mojave spike-moss	0	0
11	Selaginellaceae	Selaginella watsonii	Watson's spike-moss	11	19
Ferns
12	Aspleniaceae	Asplenium septentrionale	northern spleenwort	1	1
13	Aspleniaceae	Asplenium vespertinum	western spleenwort	0	13
14	Azollaceae	Azolla filiculoides	mosquito fern	0	19
15	Azollaceae	Azolla microphylla^	Mexican mosquito fern	0	0
16	Blechnaceae	Woodwardia fimbriata	giant chain fern	3	38
17	Dennstaedtiaceae	Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens	bracken	66	54
18	Dryopteridaceae	Cyrtomium falcatum	*Japanese netvein hollyfern	0	7
19	Dryopteridaceae	Dryopteris arguta	California wood fern	17	49
20	Dryopteridaceae	Dryopteris filix-mas	male fern	0	1
21	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum californicum	California sword fern	0	0
22	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum imbricans	cliff sword fern	0	7
23	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum imbricans ssp. curtum	cliff sword fern	6	19
24	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum imbricans ssp. imbricans	rock sword fern	0	4
25	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum kruckebergii	Kruckeberg's sword fern	0	1
26	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum munitum	western sword fern	0	5
27	Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum scopulinum	mountain holly fern	4	8
28	Equisetaceae	Equisetum arvense	field horsetail	3	23
29	Equisetaceae	Equisetum hyemale ssp. affine	horsetail	14	29
30	Equisetaceae	Equisetum laevigatum	smooth scouring rush	8	38
31	Equisetaceae	Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii	giant horsetail	0	17
32	Equisetaceae	Equisetum Xferrissii	Ferris' horsetail	0	1
33	Marsileaceae	Marsilea vestita ssp. vestita	clover fern	3	15
34	Marsileaceae	Pilularia americana	pillwort	0	7
35	Ophioglossaceae	Botrychium crenulatum	scalloped moonwort	0	4
36	Ophioglossaceae	Botrychium simplex var. simplex	little grapefern	0	2
37	Ophioglossaceae	Ophioglossum californicum	California adder's-tongue	1	6
38	Ophioglossaceae	Psilotum nudum	*skeleton fork fern	0	3
39	Polypodiaceae^	Polypodium californicum	California polypody	19	51
40	Polypodiaceae	Polypodium hesperium	western polypody	11	15
41	Polypodiaceae	Polypodium scouleri	leather-leaf fern	0	0
42	Pteridaceae	Adiantum aleuticum	five-fingered fern	1	6
43	Pteridaceae	Adiantum capillus-veneris	maidenhair fern	6	35
44	Pteridaceae	Adiantum jordanii	California maidenhair fern	7	35
45	Pteridaceae	Argyrochosma jonesii	Jones' false cloak-fern	0	4
46	Pteridaceae	Argyrochosma limitanea ssp. limitanea^	cloak fern	0	0
47	Pteridaceae	Aspidotis californica	California lace fern	10	27
48	Pteridaceae	Aspidotis densa	Indian's dream	0	2
49	Pteridaceae	Astrolepis cochisensis	scaly cloak fern	0	0
50	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes clevelandii	scaly lipfern	5	18
51	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes cooperae	Mrs. Cooper's lipfern	0	3
52	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes covillei	beady lipfern	29	64
53	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes covillei X C. parryi'	teensy lipfern	0	4
54	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes feei	slender lipfern	0	1
55	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes intertexta	coastal lip fern	0	0
56	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes newberryi	cottony fern	5	26
57	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	50	45
58	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes viscida	sticky lipfern	8	25
59	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes wootonii	Wooton's lace fern	1	0
60	Pteridaceae	Cryptogramma acrostichoides	American parsley fern	1	6
61	Pteridaceae	Notholaena californica	California cloak fern	18	30
62	Pteridaceae	Notholaena californica ssp. californica	California cloak fern	0	0
63	Pteridaceae	Notholaena californica ssp. leucophylla	California cloak fern	0	0
64	Pteridaceae	Pellaea andromedifolia	coffee fern	24	57
65	Pteridaceae	Pellaea breweri	Brewer's cliff-brake	0	1
66	Pteridaceae	Pellaea mucronata	bird's-foot fern	0	11
67	Pteridaceae	Pellaea mucronata var. californica	California cliff-brake	9	18
68	Pteridaceae	Pellaea mucronata var. mucronata	bird's-foot fern	56	65
69	Pteridaceae	Pellaea truncata	cliff brake	1	4
70	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis	goldback fern	1	11
71	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis ssp. maxonii^	Maxon's silverback fern	4	14
72	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis ssp. rebmanii^	Rebman's silverback fern	0	0
73	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis ssp. semipallida	pale goldback fern	0	0
74	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis ssp. triangularis	goldback fern	35	53
75	Pteridaceae	Pentagramma triangularis ssp. viscosa	silverback fern	8	11
76	Pteridaceae	Pteris cretica	*Cretan brake	0	0
77	Pteridaceae	Pteris tremula	*brake	0	2
78	Pteridaceae	Pteris vittata	*ladder brake	1	5
79	Salviniaceae	Salvinia minima^	*water spangles	0	0
80	Salviniaceae	Salvinia molesta^	*giant salvina	0	2
81	Salviniaceae	Salvinia oblongifolia^	*floating fern	0	0
82	Thelypteridaceae	Thelypteris puberula var. sonorensis	Sonoran maiden fern	0	7
83	Woodsiaceae^	Athyrium filix-femina var. cyclosorum	subarctic lady-fern	20	12
84	Woodsiaceae^	Cystopteris fragilis	brittle bladder fern	42	33
85	Woodsiaceae^	Woodsia oregana	Oregon cliff fern	1	6
86	Woodsiaceae^	Woodsia plummerae	Plummer's woodsia	0	3
87	Woodsiaceae^	Woodsia scopulina	cliff fern	0	1

Notes on Some Taxa

The taxa with notes are given in alphabetical order here.

Cheilanthes covillei X C. parryi. This is a rare F1 hybrid between the two species, and has been given the name C. xparishii, mentioned in the JM2 treatment for C. covillei.

Cheilanthes intertexta. Not given as a southern California taxa in JM1 or JM2, but there are now nine vouchers at the Consortium for southern California, from SnBr near Lake Arrowhead; from Andreas Canyon near Palm Springs; and from Cuyamaca Peak in the Cuyamaca / Laguna Mountains. One voucher was determined by Steve Boyd; another by Jon Rebman, both quite knowledgeable about fern species.

However, one of those vouchers was determined by Munz as C. intertexta in 1922, yet Munz did not place this species in southern California in his 1974 Flora of Southern California.

I personally know nothing about C. intertexta, but in the JM2 key it seems extremely close to C. clevelandii, a very common species in southern California:

5. 2-colored rhizome scales with well-defined, dark mid-stripe and light brown margins 1/2 to = width of mid-stripe; leaf gray-green, segments round to ± cordate ..... C. clevelandii

5'. 2-colored rhizome scales with well-defined, dark mid-stripe and light brown margins much narrower than mid-stripe; leaf dark green, segments ± round ..... C. intertexta

As a result, it wouldn't be terribly surprising if a very small number of C. clevelandii plants had characteristics closer to those in the key for C. intertexta.

It would be interesting to know if the JM2 author knew about these vouchers and rejected this determination, or if the JM2 author was unaware of these vouchers.

Pentagramma triangularis ssp. maxonii. This taxon is marked as having a change, but the change was not in its name. What has changed are voucher determinations. Many vouchers formerly determined as ssp. viscosa in southwest San Diego County have now been redetermined as ssp. maxonii.

Polypodium scouleri. Given as being in SCo, n ChI in the JM2, with this note: Pls called P.s. from n ChI are fertile or sterile hybrids involving P. californicum. SCo was added to its geographic range in JM2. It would be interesting to know if those plants are also hybrids.

Go to:

• Flora of Southern California: Master Checklist