Aleuritopteris bicolor (Roxb.) Fraser-Jenk., Fern Gaz. 18(5): 223 223 . (Syn: Pteris bicolor Roxb.);
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Is it Silver fern ? – Flora of Madhya Pradesh: Yes … This does look like Silver fern, may be Cheilanthes argentea! dont know about the fern id… but may i suggest you check your color balance and light source in Yes even to me look like Silver fern Yes it is. 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. Although … has explained the details about Cheilanthes (Aleuriopteris) bicolor, he has not given the reasons for the name change. In India this fern was known as Cheilanthes farinosa. Yes, … has adequately outlined the reasons, which I had explained to him when we worked together on his West Himalayan book. I should have mentioned his book, which remains probably the most useful account in existence of a large chunk of Indian ferns. But I did not detail the history again as it has been explained many times since – as with many other revised names from a decade and more ago – and it is no longer what I would think of as a “name change” now, because it appears to be rather well established. Were there a further change recently that was not so well known it would be important to explain it again, but this one doesn’t seem to have any problens attached to it as far as I know. Here is a picture of Silver fern photographed yesterday in Bandhavgarh National Park;
Pityrogramma calomelanos I think this is Pityrogramma calomelanos (L.) Link, an adventive species from South America. I’m sorry not to be able to agree the Widodo guess again, but Pityrogramma is the wrong genus. This is Aleuritopteris (or if you must prefer, “Cheilanthes“) bicolor (Roxb.) Fraser-Jenk., native to India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and (just) S. China. There are many white-farinose species of cheilanthoids in India, of which this is the commonest and most widespread one.
In the past all Aleuritopteris species tended to be called “Cheilanthes farinosa“, but A. farinosa does not occur in India and is an Afro-Arabian species related more to the Indian and S.E. Asian A. anceps than to A. bicolor.
Aleuritopteris has a marginal turned-down pseudo-indusium enclosing the sorus, while the adventive (in India) genus Pityrogramma has the sorus extending down over the lower surface and without a pseudo-indusium.
We must get these simple cases right and know them confidently before guessing! Thanks … for the follow up on this post. Thanks … for the feedback. .
Aleuritopteris bicolor. What State is Borgad in, though? It is near Nasik in Maharashtra state.
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