Neurocallis praestantissima in Costa Rica

Abstract

In 1904 Charles Werckle, the French-Costa Rican gardener and collector, sent a depauperate specimen of Neurocallis praestantissima (Bory) Fee to Hermann Christ, who was then working on the Filicales for Durand and Pittier's Florae Costaricensis. Christ described the fern as a new species, Pteris macrodictya (Bull. Herb. Boiss. II, 7: 267. 1907), and related it to P. haenkeana Presl and to P. podophylla Swartz. He remarked that although the specimen was sterile and fragmentary, the uniqueness of the new species laid in the entire margins, coarsely reticulate venation, and herbaceous texture of the pinnae, and in the general resemblance of the plant to Hemidictyum marginatum Presl, a set of characters not found in any of the known species of Pteris. Two months later, in his Appendice aux Primitiae Costaricensis Filic. V. (Bull Herb. Boiss. II, 7: 585. 1907), Christ corrected his earlier publication and recognized that the Werckle collection was actually the first continental record of N. praestantissima, described from the West Indies in 1845. This emendation was overlooked by Scamman (Rhodora 63: 205. 1961), who supposed that P. macrodictya Christ was P. grandifolia L. J. G. Baker made the same mistake as Christ did when he described and illustrated Pteris dominicensis Baker in Hooker (Ic. P1. 3: 1642. 1886), an error later corrected by Jenman (Ferns Brit. West Ind. & Guian. [Misc. Inf. Bot. Dept. Trinidad 23] 118. 1900). After the collection by Werckle, who as usual did not cite a locality for his plant, Neurocallis was never again reported for Costa Rica. But during a recent field trip to Patillo, in the mountains ENE of Tapantl, Prov. Cartago, I located a large population of this fern (G6mez & Kennedy 3345, CR). The specimens were collected in a dense rain forest, where several species of Bolbitis, Cyathea, Diplazium, and Thelypteris were abundant.