Notes on Pellaea glabella and Polystichum scopulinum

Abstract

Pellaea glabella Mett. ex Kuhn var. simplex Butters and P. glabella var. occidentalis (E. Nels.) Butters have not previously been known to overlap in their distributions (Tryon, 1957; Tryon & Britton, 1958). Two stations for var. simplex were found this past summer in the range of var. occidentalis. The collections are Dorn 1354 (RM) from Teton County in northwestern Wyoming and Dorn 1455 (RM) from Crook County in northeastern Wyoming. The collected plants have 32 spores per sporangium (var. occidentalis has 64 spores per sporangium) and have the morphological characters of var. simplex. Both varieties were found within 30 meters of each other at the Teton County station. Polystichum scopulinum (D. C. Eaton) Maxon has not previously been considered to occur in Wyoming. Actually, the locality is in Wyoming. Eaton (1880) gave the locality as Upper Teton Canion in eastern Idaho. The specimen was collected on a Hayden expedition, and Hayden's (1873) report leaves no doubt that the locality is Upper Teton Cafion, Teton County, Wyoming. The Idaho border runs perpendicular to the mouth of the canyon, and so the upper canyon is several miles inside Wyoming, where the Hayden maps show it. Hanna (1932) suggested that the locality was in Wyoming, but did not confirm it. Fernald (1924) placed P. scopulinum under P. mohrioides as a variety and quoted a description of the type region of P. scopulinum from Hayden (1873). The description is probably not of the locality, because the plant was collected on July 28 but the description is for the party's activities on July 29. I attempted to relocate the species, but was unsuccessful due to the extensive area and abundant potential habitat. Another Wyoming collection of P. scopulinum is in the Yellowstone National Park Herbarium (M. T. Doutt 155, July 20, 1930). It was collected in the Bechler River Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming. The Bechler River Canyon is about 40 miles north of the locality.