Friday, November 14, 2008

Rock Brake



I'm not sure which species of Cryptogramma this is, it appears there may be several species in the state. This was up in the Napeequa valley late last summer.

In the enlarged image it is easier to see that it has vegetative and fertile fronds. The vegetative fronds look somewhat like parsley which gives it one of its common names: parsley fern.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are in luck, there seems to be two species that occur in Washington according to the Flora of North America. This one looks like acrostichoides, but you can decide for yourself. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=108536

Jonathan said...

Thanks for the id!

I guess I still have trouble with some of the terms:
Would the blades count as somewhat leathery? (I guess they don't appear to be translucent when dried anyway)
When it says segment what is it referring to?
What counts as a stem here?