Cheilanthes krameri Franch. & Sav., Enum. Pl. Jap. 212, 619-620 212 1879. (Syn: Aleuritopteris krameri (Franch. & Sav.) Ching);
Fern for ID : 280711 : AK-2: Taken at Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra on the 30/11/09.
Was growing wild in a number of places and locals were referring it as ‘Sanjeevani’.
This should be Silver fern, Chelianthes argenta.
if back side of leaves is silver in colour & strm is maroon black nelu This is indeed an Aleuritopteris species (Cheilanthes in a wide sense), and to identify species of this fairly complex genus one needs to see the scales on the underneath of the stipe and rachis, which are not visible in this photo. In addition this is a very immature or baby plant, not full size and not of adult-type morphology, and this again makes it more difficult to identify. If I had the specimen in hand so I could see the scales and the underneath I could probably make a definite determination, but from this photo alone it is going to have to be a bit of an approximation! I find very often that because people don’t necessarily know what features one has to show, for each individual genus, photos are sent to me that are frequently quite inadequate. Cheilanthes bullosa – but it is in young stage My apologies that once again I am unfortunately obliged to be doubtful of that identification as C./A. bullosa. While A. bullosa is one of the species that does have a bullulate upper surface, as I mentioned, it is not known (that is from a compendium of c. 100 herbaria holding Indian collections that I studied for monographic revision work on this genus) from as far north as Mahabaleshwar. It occurs from Karnataka southwards- only in the southern part of the Western and Eastern Ghats. I did not mention that the big diagnostic difference between A. bullosa and the common and widespread A. formosana (syn. C. brevifrons) is that A. bullosa has concolorous, reddish scales on the stipe, whereas A. formosana [and A. anceps] has narrower, bicolorous brown and pale-brown scales on the stipe – with a central band or streak of darker brown. This is a major difference between two groups in Sect. Farinosae [C. farinosa itself is not present in India] and is of considerable taxonomic importance in this genus.
So if the collector would care to provide a photo that would enable the identification of this species, by showing the scales on the stipe against a light background we can easily prove that it is not A. bullosa.
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