ISSN 0308-0838 THE FERN GAZETTE VOLUME ELEVEN PART SIX 1978 THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH PTERIDOLOGICAL SOCIETY THE FERN GAZETTE VOLUME 11 PART6 1978 CONTENTS Page MAIN ARTICLES A tetraploid cytotype of Asplenium cuneifolium Viv. in Corisca R. Deschatres, J.J. Schneller & T. Reichstein 343 Further investigations on Asplenium cuneifolium in the British Isles - Anne Sleep, R.H. Roberts, Ja net I. Souter & A.McG. Stirling 345 The pteridophytes of Reunion Island -F. Badni & Th . Cadet 349 A new Asplenium from Mauritius - David H. Lorence 367 A new species of Lomariopsis from Mauritius- David H. Lorence Fire resistance in the pteridophytes of Zambia - Jan Kornas 373 Spore characters of the genus Cheilanthes with particular reference to Southern Australia -He/en Quirk & T. C. Ch ambers 385 Preliminary note on a fossil Equisetum from Costa Rica - L.D. Gomez 401 Sporoderm architecture in modern Azolla - K. Fo wler & J. Stennett-Willson · 405 Morphology, anatomy and taxonomy of Lycopodiaceae of the Darjeeling , Himalayas- Tuhinsri Sen & U. Sen . 413 SHORT NOTES The range extension of the genus Cibotium to New Guinea - B.S. Parris 428 Notes on soil types on a fern-rich tropical mountain summit in Malaya - A.G. Piggott 428 lsoetes in Rajasthan, India - S. Misra & T. N. Bhardwaja 429 Paris Herbarium Pteridophytes - F. Badre, 430 REVIEWS 366, 37 1, 399, 403, 404 [T HE FERN GAZETTE Volume 11 Part 5 was published 12th December 1977] Published by THE BRITISH PTERIDOLOGICAL SOCI ETY, c/o Oepartment of Botany, British Museum (Natural History), London SW7 5BD. FERN GAZ. 11(6) 1978 343 A TETRAPLOID CYTOTYPE OF ASPLENIUM CUNEIFOLIUM VIV. IN CORSICA. R. DESCHATRES Le Bois-Randenais, Brugheas, F-031 1 0 Escurolles J.J. SCHNELLER lnstitut fUr Systematische Botanik der Universitat, 107 Zo llikerstrasse, CH-8008 Zurich & T. REICHSTEIN lnstitut fUr Organ ische Chemie der Universitat, 19 St. Johanns-Ring, CH-4056 Basel ABSTRACT A tetraploid, morphologically similar to Asplenium cuneifolium Viv., is reported for the first time. INTRODUCTION Asplenium cuneifo lium Viv. is a small fern of the Asplenium adiantum-nigrum group so far known to extend from Portugal (Pinto da Silva. 1968) , throughout most of Europe (Crabbe, Jermy & Lovis, 1964; Jalas & Suominen, 1972, map 92) to Turkey (Henderson, 1965). lt grows exclusivefy on ultrabasic rocks (serpentine; perfdotite, magnesite) or mixed rocks and screes containing these materials. As in all other members of this group (A. adiantum-nigrum L., A. ondpteris L.,A. balearicum Shivas and A. pseudolanceolatum Fomin), it is morphologically a rather variable species and single fronds cannot always be identified with confidence from herbarium material. If more ample material is available, or if popu lations can be seen in the field, correct identification is usually easy. All plants of A. cuneifolium from central and eastern Europe which have been checked so far (Love, Love & Pichi-Sermoll i, 1977, p. 241 ) have been fo und to be diploid and sexual (n = 36, 2n = 72) and A. cuneifolium has been shown to be an ancestor of the allotetraploid Asplenium adiantum-nigrum (Shivas, 1969) . In 1974, a population growing on serpentine s.l. (green schists) in Corsica was detected by one of us (R.D.). Progeny raised from spores in Basel (TR-3839) proved to be tetraploid. On the basis of gross morphology we are unable to distinguish these plants with confidence from the hitherto known diploids, although they do have bigger spores and possibly other differences in micro-characters. We assume that they represent a tetraploid cytotype of essentially autotetraploid origin, which is not uncommon among other members of Asplenium ( Lovis, 1964; Sleep, 1966), Phyllitis ( Emmott, 1964) and Ceterach (Vida, 1963) . Such essentially autopolyploid cytotypes have frequently been distinguished from their diploid ancestors as subspecies, and we intend to follow this procedure. This treatment, however, is not entirely satisfactory since the category of subspecies was created for other pu rposes. We refrain from suggesting any new subspecific name until we can establish to which cytotype Viviani's type of A. cuneifolium can be referred. Documentation with figures will be published elsewhere. The spores used for raising the plants which have been counted were collected by R. Deschatres in Corsica, between Sermano and Bustanico, 9th July 1974. A tetraploid cytotype has also been found in Scotland and Ireland (Sleep et al., 1978)" and may occur in other localities. We are wi lling to accept well pressed fronds with spores for identification. *See p.345 of this issue 344 FERN GAZETTE: VOLUME 11 PA RT 6 (1978) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We thank Dr. Anne Sleep and Mr. A. McG. Stirling for their kind co-operation. REFER ENCE CRABBE, J.A., JERMY, A.C. & LOVIS, J.D. 1964. Asplenium in Flora Europaea I, Cambridge. EMMOTT, J.l. 1964. A cytogenetic investigation in a Phyllitis-Asplenii.Jm complex. New Phytologist 63: 306-3 18. HENDERSON, D.M. 1965 in DAVIS, P.H. Flora of Turkey I, Edinburgh. JALAS, J. & SUOMINEN J. (Eds), 1972. Atlas FloraeEuropaeae 1. Pteridophyta, Helsinki. LO VE, A., LO VE D. & PICHI SERMO LLI, R.E.G. 1977. Cytotaxonomic Atlas of the Pteridophyta, Vaduz. LOVIS, J.D. 1964: Autopolyploidy in Asplenium, Nature 203 (4942), 324-325. PINTO DA SILVA, A.R. 1968: A flora e a vegetacao das areas ultrabasicas do nordeste transmontano. Subsidios para o seu estudo. Agron. Lusitana 30 (3-4) J 175-364 + VI tav. SH IVAS, M.G . 1969: A cytotaxonomic study of the Asplenium adiantum-nigrum complex. Brit. Fern Gaz.. 10: 68-80. SLEEP, A. 1966: Some cytotaxonomic problems in the fern genera Asplenium and Polystichum. Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds. SLEEP, A., ROBERTS, R.H., SOUTER, J.l. & ST IRLING, A. McG. 1978. Further investigations on Asplenium cuneifolium in the British Isles. FernGaz. 11: 345-348. VIDA, G. 1963: A new Asplenium (Sectio Ceterach) species and the problem of the origin of Phyl/itis hybrida (Milde) C. Christ. Acta Bot. Acad. Sci. Hun.!l. 9: 197-215. FERN GAZ. 11(6) 1978 345 FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON ASPLENIUM CUNEI FOLIUM IN THE BRITISH ISLES ANNE SLEEP Department of Plant Sciences, the University, Leeds LS2 9JT R.H. ROBERTS 51 Belmont Road, Bangor, Gwynedd JANET I. SOUTER (nee EMMOTT) Department of Plant Sciences the University, Leeds LS2 9JT & A.McG . STI RLING 17 Austen Road, Glasgow G13 1SJ ABSTRACT Chromosome counts have been made from twenty collections of putative Asplenium cuneifolium from Scottish serpentine localities and all have proved to be uniformly tetraploid; with n = 72. lt is thought that these plants are identical with a tetraploid cytotype of Asplenium cuneifolium which has recently been described from Corsica.* The discovery of a fern bel ieved to be morphologically identical with the continental Asplenium cuneifolium Viv. was described by Roberts & Sti rling ( 1974) from several different serpentine localities in Scotland. Three plants from two of these localities (Glen Lochay and Glendaruel, Argyll) were counted and gave diploid chromosome counts. Subsequently chromosome counts of plants from three more of the Scottish serpentine localities were made in order to check the distribution of putative Asple'nium cuneifolium for the Atlas of Ferns of the British Isles (Jermy et al., 1978), which was, at that time, in preparation. Surprisingly, every plant examined proved to be tetraploid, with n = 72. A similar result was obtained from a plant of putative A. cuneifolium which was col lected from serpentine rocks at Dawross, Connemara, Ireland, by A. Rutherford, M. Scannell and A. McG . Stirling in July 1975. Following these rather unexpected results, the Scottish localities from which the original col lections came were re-sampled during the summer of 1977; sporangia! fixings were taken by A. McG. S. from the site� enumerated in Table I, and were sent to Leeds for cytological examination . In this re-investigation, some twenty plants from eight localities have been examined cytologically, and all have proved to be tetraploid (see Table 1). No diploids have been recorded. In view of the uniformity of these results, it seems that these populations of putative Asplenium cuneifolium from serpentine rocks in Scotland and Ireland may generally prove to be tetraploid. As has been shown by Roberts & Sti rling (1974), these Scottish Asplenium populations are morphologically distinct from Asplenium adiantum-nigrum L. and are very similar to the continental A. cuneifo lium Viv., a central European species characteristic of serpentine and other ultrabasic rocks. The specimens of A. cuneifolium which have been examined cytologically have been found to be diploid, with n = 36 (Love, Love & Pichi- Sermolli, 1977). In addition, Sh ivas (1956, 1969) has shown this species to be one of the ancestors of A. adiantum-nigrum L. Recently, a plant from Corsica, which one would, on morphological grounds, have no hesitation in referring to A. cuneifolium Viv., was counted, and proved to be tetraploid (Deschatres, Schneller & Reichstein, 1978). Th is plant could be an autotetraploid derivative of the diploid cytotype of A. cuneifolium Viv. The spores of th is tetraploid *See p.343 of this issue. 346 FERN GAZETTE: VOLUME 11 PA RT 6 (1978) TABLE 1 COLLECTOR AND NO. CELLS LOCALITY RESULT NUMBER OBSERVED Near Ben Bowie AMS/1/77 n = c.70 2 (NS 347831 ). Hf!lensburgh. vc 99. Dunbarton. Lime HILL (NS 473963). AMS/2/77 n = 72 7+ * Loch Ard Forest. vc 86. Stirling. AMS/3/77 n = c.70 10 4/75 n = c.70 2 Glendaruel (NS 021 904). AMS/4/77 n = 72 7 vc 98. Argyll. AMS/5/77 n = 72 6 AMS/6/77 n = 72 10 AMS/7/77 n = 72 4 Corrycharmaig. Glen AMS/8/77 n = 72 4 Lochay (NN 521358) . vc 88. Mid Perth . AMS/9/77 n = 72 7 AMS/10/77 n = c.70 3 AMS/1 1/77 Tetraploid 6 Balhamie Hill.