Stenogrammitis myosuroides (Polypodiaceae): a new addition to the European flora from southwest Ireland

Abstract

The occurrence of the fern Stenogrammitis myosuroides (Sw.) Labiak in Europe is reported for the first time. A small population was discovered on two boulders beside a stream in Atlantic oak woodland in the Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry, in southwest Ireland. The main identification features of this taxa and features that distinguish it from other similar taxa are laid out and discussed. S. myosuroides is elsewhere known to occur in the Neotropics, in Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and is thought to have colonised its Irish site through long-distance spore dispersal. Two Grammitid species of similar ecology have been discovered in the Azores in the past five decades and a number of bryophyte species share a similar disjunct distribution between Ireland and the Neotropics, all of which supports the theory that long-distance dispersal is the most plausible explanation for the occurrence of S. myosuroides in Ireland. It is not clear how long S. myosuroides has been present in Ireland, although morphological differences suggest that it may have been separated from the Neotropical populations for a long period. However, molecular analysis is required to elucidate this.