''Ophioglossum petiolatum'' is a species of
fern in the family
Ophioglossaceae
Ophioglossaceae, the adder's-tongue family, is a small family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), it is the only family in the order Ophioglossales, which together with the Psilotales is placed in the sub ...
.
William Jackson Hooker
Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
named this species in 1823.
The species occurs in parts of
Asia,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
.
Common names
According to
Encyclopedia of Life, in English the species goes by the common name longstem adderstongue or long-stem adder's-tongue.
Some universities, including the
Missouri Department of Conservation, give it the common name stalked adder’s-tongue.
Description
It contains about 50 to 150
chloroplast
A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...
s per epidermal cell and more than 200 in
mesophyll cells.
It grows quickly in pots making it suitable for botany instruction.
Distribution
''Ophioglossum petiolatum'' has a
tropical and
subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
distribution in South America and Africa.
It was probably introduced to North America early in the 1900s. It is found in
Hawaii but may have been introduced recently. It was introduced to other states in the
United States. In the state of
Missouri it only occurs in
Pemiscot County.
In
Alabama it is present in 5 counties.
In
Virginia it is present in 3 counties, first being reported in the state on the lawn of
Tabernacle United Methodist Church in the year 1979.
It is rare in
New Zealand.
Robert Malcolm Laing was the first to record this species in
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...
.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15248500
petiolatum