2. Woodwardia Smith, 5: 411. 1793 Chain fern [in honor of Thomas Jenkin. 1745.
Chain fern [in honor of Thomas Jenkin 1820, English botanist]
Raymond B. Cranfill
Anchistea C. Presl; Lorinseria C. Presl
Plants terrestrial or rarely on rock. Stems long-creeping to erect, slender to stout, not climbing; scales brown. Leaves monomorphic (dimorphic in 1 species), clustered or well separated. Blades pinnate or pinnatifid. Rachises and costae scaly. Veins anastomosing in both sterile and fertile leaves, forming a regular series of areoles along costae and costules, further anastomosing in 1 species. Sori discrete, in chainlike rows along costae or costules, extending only the length of individual areolar veins. Spores with perine irregularly folded. x = 34, 35.
Species 14 (3 in the flora): North America, Central America, Mediterranean Europe, e Asia.
Woodwardia radicans (Linnaeus) Smith has been reported as an escape from cultivation in Florida and in the Sierra Nevada in California; it has not persisted. It and the commonly cultivated Woodwardia unigemmata Makino resemble Woodwardia fimbriata Smith, but both W . radicans and W . unigemmata are distinguished by having a scaly bulblet near the apex of the leaf.
