Mickelopteris cordata

Mickelopteris cordata (Hook. & Grev.) Fraser-Jenk. (syn: Acrostichum ramentaceum Roxb.; Gymnogramma sagittata (Fée) Ettingsh.; Hemionitis cordata Roxb. ex Hook. & Grev.; Hemionitis cordifolia Roxb. ex Bedd. (ambiguous synonym); Hemionitis cordifolia Roxb. ex Wall. (ambiguous synonym); Hemionitis cumingiana Fée; Hemionitis hastata R.Br. ex Wall.; Hemionitis intermedia Fée; Hemionitis sagittata Fée; Hemionitis toxotis Trev.; Hemionitis trinervis Buch.-Harn. ex Dillwyn; Parahemionitis cordata (Roxb. ex Hook. & Grev.) Fraser-Jenkins);
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Indian Subcontinent to China (S. Yunnan) and W. & Central Malesia, Hainan, S. Taiwan: Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China South-Central, Hainan, India, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam as per POWO (Hemionitis cordata Roxb. ex Hook. & Grev.);
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India (Andhra Pradesh, Assam State, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar [Burma], Philippines, China (Hainan, S-Yunnan), S-Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, peninsular Malaysia, Lesser Sunda Isl. (Sumbawa) as per Catalogue of Life;
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Heart Fern (Hemionitis arifolia)SN15420 : 3 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (1) – 4 mb.
Wild fern from east and western Ghats of Peninsular India, sporangia distributed to the whole area of a fertile frond (leaf)

Yes, except that the genus is not Hemionitis and the species name is probably correctly cordata. So it is better called Mickelopteris cordata, or if for some reason you prefer not to follow that, then Parahemionitis arifolia.
You very much need up-to-date reference-books. Taxonomy is an ongoing science, and did not stop in the 1970s or 80s.
Incidentally one can often buy this plant in pots in local supermarkets here, originating from the massive-scale Dutch Nursery trade. I have two pots of it outside here in Cascais, Portugal – in a frost-free garden. I love the way it grows on all the old walls in places like Yercaud in the Shevaroy Hills, T.N., often along with the “golden fern”, Pityrogramma austroamericana (though that is happier on natural rocks). 

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Plant for ID 16102016AH1 : 10 posts by 1 author. Attachments (2)
….here sending two pics….to identify …

Thanks, …, May I request you to pl. give details of place, time etc. for Id.

…, those photographs I’ve taken just today (16.10.16) …..from howrah district, uluberia sub division. Since 1988 i am observing it only a single habitat, with just 5 to 10 individuals only. I think after only few days it will be disappear ….. from here. Because of habitat destruction. Uptill now i have never seen this sp anywhere except at this single place….. though i conducted several collection trips from my college….ngo…& bsi. It is an annual plant with sallowly prostrate rhizomatous (?) shoot. The aerial shoot arises/sprouting every yr at monsoon season and shrivells in winter.

Any estimation regarding the family ?

No…..i tried to solve it several times…..but failed……..i van rember….Once in the yr 2006  i collected it with sorus on abaxial surface…..the sorus was interestingly reticulate through the veniules…………So it may belongs to the group Filicopsida under Pteridophyte………but i become confused due to its reticulate venation.

I just returned from working on my extensive collections in Helsinki Botanical Museum.

The photos sent of this species are very clear even though they are rather small plants – the wall habitat is quite typical.
This is the species previously known as Parahemionitis cordata. In common with more than a few fern species, it has an involved nomenclature as it was known before that as “Hemionitis arifolia“, but concerning the genus, Dr. Mickel and Prof. Tryon found that it is not the same genus as the American genus, Hemionitis, and having read that and leaping in (with no less than 3 rapid papers before he managed to actually validate it!), Panigrahi took it upon himself to set up a new genus for it, Parahemionitis, and called it Parahemionitis arifolia prior to any finalisation of it by Mickel or Tryon.
       However concerning the specific name, the late great Dr. C.V. Morton found that Nicholas Burman’s only actual specimen of his basionym, “Asplenium arifolium“, so labelled in G and complying sufficiently well with his description, was a juvenile baby Acrostichum aureum, with an ovate and slightly cordate leaf, as identified correctly before him by Alston.  Thus like most early and less precise authors, Burman’s concept was mixed and involved some misidentification – a very common situation affecting anyone from Linnaeus himself onwards!  Although Morton expressed the possibility of a little doubt, which has no actual effect, he then clearly and formally cited the Type, and lectotypified A. arifolium on that specimen, which is thus the identity of that name and under the ICN should not be superceded and changed again. Thus the epithet “arifolium” cannot be used for this species. The next available basionym is Roxburgh’s (ex Hook. & Grev.) Hemionitis cordata, which is the basionym for the current and correct name of the species, Mickelopteris cordata (Roxb. ex Hook. & Grev.) Fraser-Jenk.
    A recent paper attempting to relectotypify Asplenium arifolium in the misapplied sense it was being used in in India, having read about the situation and details from my previous book (but misleadingly not citing that source!) was both unnecessary and misunderstood the situation and has no effect on the final nomenclature.
     The species itself is also complex as there are different cytotypes, both apomictic and diploid sexual, with different ranges and it has been investigated in detail in an interesting paper and programme by Taiwanese botanists.  There is a diploid sexual taxon in Sri Lanka.
     If plants manage to become more mature and larger in a good season, they are interesting in producing small vegetative bulbils and leaves of new plants in the cleft where the stipe joins the lamina.  This is frequently seen in South India, or anywhere where the local climate is suitable for good growth.  Old leaves can then grow small colonies of vegetative new plantlets in this way as they touch the substrate.  The species is already known from West Bengal, the type being from Bengal.

THANKS to …….. for your help to identify the specimen… to communicate the world renowned botanists…. i was awaiting for this moment…..since 1988.
THANKS a lot to ….. for identification as well as for excellent nomenclatural clarification upto the era of ICN.

….is there any connection between previous 2 photos and these attached pictures?? As i found it at same location and the same season. Are these the developmental stages of same species?? Or the different ones??? Attachments (2)

No, no connection – the big radiate frond is Lygodium flexuosum.  Must be just because of the rainy season.

Thanks for clearing my confusion regarding the  identification of the specimen.

Thanks, … Is Parahemionitis arifolia (Burm. f.) Panigrahi is the accepted name now for this plant?

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Requesting a fern id (15112021)- 2: 1 high res. image.
Segregating post clubbed due to same subject:
The habit is herbaceous, the leaf appears like a simple leaf of angiosperm. It has intricate venetion. Could it be a fern first if all?

The habit is herbaceous, the leaf appears like a simple leaf of angiosperm. It has intricate venetion. Could it be a fern first if all?

Yes, it is a fern – and is widely in cultivation and commerce world-wide.  The correct name under the International Code of Nomenclature is Mickelopteris cordata, though in previous literature it was called Hemionitis arifolia or Parahemionitis arifolia. But the  designated lectotype of arifolia is a different genus and species altogether and this species is separate from Hemionitis.
It likes growing on mossy walls in south India and dries up completely in the dry season.  I have a big plant here in my little garden in Portugal that I bought in a Lidl supermarket, growing well in a pot  outside- though it started drying up last week when I forgot to water it, now recovered.  I hope it will get through our wet Winter.
The plant produces interesting little adventive plantlets from a bulbil in the crux of the frond at the top of the stipe, when growing well, so you get tiny plants emerging on top of the leaves – curious and interesting horticulturally.

 

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References:
Catalogue of Life  POWO  GBIF (High resolution specimens) Flora of peninsular India  Wikipedia  pteridoportal

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