Holly fern, climbing holly fern

Stenochlaena kunzeana C. Presl ex L. Underwood, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 33: 196. 1906

Petiole straw-colored, 3--12 cm, narrowly winged, base scaly. Blade oblanceolate, 7--25 × 3--6 cm, tapered toward base. Rachis winged throughout; wing ca. 0.5 mm wide. Sterile pinnae narrowly oblong to lanceolate, 3--6 × 1--1.5 cm, coarsely serrate, base cuneate. Fertile pinnae linear, ca. 3 mm wide.

Hammocks, limestone sinkholes; 0 m; Fla.; West Indies in Cuba, Hispaniola.

Plants from Florida differ from those of Cuba and Hispaniola by their smaller size and more deeply serrate sterile pinnae. Unlike all other species in the genus, the Florida plants rarely climb trees and freely produce fertile leaves from the terrestrial stem. According to James H. Peck (pers. comm.), the gametophytes of Lomariopsis kunzeana can often be found among the stem scales.