Christella parasitica
Content
Distribution
AWetter parts of tropics and subtropics of sia present, Africa: Kenya (Kenya present); Uganda (Uganda present), Asia-Tropical, Australasia: Queensland (Queensland present), E. Africa present, Pacific present: Hawaii present, St Helena, Tahiti present
AWetter parts of tropics and subtropics of sia; throughout Malesia; Queensland; in the Pacific to Tahiti and Hawaii; E. Africa (Uganda, Kenya); St Helena (introduced?).
Notes
The type was discovered by Christensen (1910); previously the name was used confusedly. In Kwangtung (source of the type) almost all plants have a rather short-creeping caudex and many glandular hairs on veins, but some have a longer rhizomatous caudex and few or no glands. The type of Aspidium procurrens Mett. lacks glands. Beddome at first used the name procurrens for a mixture of species which had in common a creeping rhizome; v.A.v.R. also used the name confusedly. Under Cyclosorus procurrens Copeland described a fern with narrow pinnae lobed half-way to the costa; I have not seen specimens. Some specimens have the frond-form of this species but short hairs; some agree in hairs and glands but have some reduced basal pinnae (type of Cyclosorus benguetensis); some such specimens are probably hybrids. Manton found that C. parasitica in Ceylon is tetraploid and her co-workers produced hybrids with the diploid C. hispidula and with other tetraploids. In breeding, the absence of glandular hairs is recessive to their presence.