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Pellaea atropurpurea (L.) Link  
Family: Pteridaceae
[Allosorus atropurpureus (L.) Kunze, moreAsplenium atropurpureum (L.) Bernh., Cassebeera atropurpurea (L.) Kaulf., Cassebeera atropurpurea var. minima Eggert ex Farw., Hemionitis atropurpurea (L.) Christenh., Notholaena atropurpurea (L.) Keys., Pellaea atropurpurea f. bifida Hahne, Pellaea atropurpurea f. furcata Hahne, Pellaea atropurpurea var. cristata Trel., Pellaea atropurpurea var. latifolia Pickett, Pellaea atropurpurea var. minima Eggert ex Farw., Pellaea atropurpurea var. mucronata (Fée) E.Fourn., Pellaea atropurpurea var. nana (Richardson) Hook., Pellaea atropurpurea var. punctata Gilbert, Pellaea atropurpurea var. venosa Gilbert, Pellaea spiculata (Schkuhr) Fée, Platyloma atropurpurea (L.) J. Sm., Pteris spiculata Schkuhr]
Pellaea atropurpurea image
Max Licher
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  • Gleason & Cronquist
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Michael D. Windham in Flora of North America (vol. 2)
Stems compact, ascending, stout, 5--10 mm diam.; scales uniformly reddish brown (or tan), linear-subulate, 0.1--0.3 mm wide, thin, margins entire to denticulate. Leaves somewhat dimorphic, sterile leaves shorter and less divided than fertile leaves, clustered on stems, 5--50 cm; croziers villous. Petiole reddish purple to nearly black, lustrous, rounded adaxially, without prominent articulation lines. Blade elongate-deltate, usually 2-pinnate proximally, 2--18 cm wide; rachis reddish purple throughout, straight, rounded adaxially, densely pubescent adaxially with short, curly, appressed hairs. Pinnae perpendicular to rachis or ascending, not decurrent on rachis, usually with 3--15 ultimate segments; costae straight, 10--100 mm, often longer than ultimate segments. Ultimate segments linear-oblong, 10--75 mm, leathery, sparsely villous abaxially near midrib; margins weakly recurved to plane on fertile segments, usually covering less than 1/2 abaxial surface, borders whitish, crenulate; apex obtuse to slightly mucronate. Veins of ultimate segments obscure. Sporangia long-stalked, containing 32 spores, not intermixed with farina-producing glands. n = 2 n = 87, apogamous. Sporulating summer--fall. Calcareous cliffs and rocky slopes, usually on limestone; 100--2500 m; Ont., Que.; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Colo., Conn., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., Nev., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Utah, Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico; Central America in Guatemala. Contrary to D. B. Lellinger's (1985) hypothesis, isozyme data indicate that neither Pellaea glabella nor P . ternifolia was involved in the origin of this apogamous triploid. Instead, it appears that P . atropurpurea is an autopolyploid derivative of a single diploid taxon that has not yet been located. A thorough survey of spore number per sporangium in this species should be undertaken to determine whether the diploid progenitor is still extant. Collections from western Canada identified as P . atropurpurea actually represent P . gastonyi , an apogamous tetraploid produced by hybridization between P . atropurpurea and diploid populations of P . glabella . Pellaea atropurpurea has also hybridized with P . wrightiana ; the hybrid is a rare apogamous pentaploid known only from western Oklahoma. Pellaea lyngholmii is the apogamous tetraploid hybrid between P . atropurpurea and P . truncata . Pellaea atropurpurea is distinguished from all these hybrids by having rachises that are densely pubescent adaxially, larger ultimate segments, and spores averaging less than 62 µm in diameter.

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Rhizome-scales 3-6 mm, appressed, matted, dull tawny or rusty, the young tips tan and entangled; lvs slightly dimorphic, stiffly erect, mostly 20-40 cm; petiole shorter than the blade, purplish-brown, obviously hairy (as also the rachis) especially on the upper side; pinnae 5-11 pairs, petiolulate, the sterile ones ovate to broadly oblong, the basal mostly at least twice as long as the upper and with 3-15 segments, the ultimate segments mostly 1-7.5 נ0.5-1 cm; fertile segments narrower than the sterile, linear-oblong, acute, mucronate, the irregularly revolute margin opening and commonly leaving many sporangia exposed, eventually becoming flat; 2n=87, an apogamous triploid with 32 spores per sporangium. Calcareous rocks and open woods; s. Que., Vt., and R.I. to Minn. and Wyo., s. to Fla., Ariz., and Mex.; disjunct in Sask., Alta., and B.C. Thought to have originated by hybridization of P. glabella with another undetermined sp.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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Patrick Alexander
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The PCC, and this data portal, were made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) program, grant numbers 1802504, 1802352, 1802134, 1802033, 1802270, 1802255, 1802239, 1802446, 1802305.
The pteridoportal taxonomic thesaurus is based on the Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World, generously provided by Michael Hassler.