Gray's CloakfernCarl Rothfels
Notholaena grayi is a typical member of core Notholaena I, with lanceolate leaf blades and scattered scales on the stalks. It occurs on a wide variety of rocky slopes and cliffs, in central and northern Mexico, and Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (where it is rare to uncommon). It has two known cytotypes: some populations are diploid (two complete chromosome sets) whereas others are triploid (three complete sets). The diploid populations reproduce sexually and are recognized taxonomically as N. grayi subsp. sonorensis Windham (Diploid Gray’s Cloakfern). The triploid populations—N. grayi subsp. grayi (Triploid Gray’s Cloakfern)—reproduce apogamously (the sporophytes produce unreduced spores, which develop into triploid gametophytes, which then produce a new sporophyte directly from their vegetative tissue, without sexual reproduction; Windham, 1993a). The two cytotypes can only be distinguished by spore size and by spore number per sporangium. Notholaena grayi ssp. sonorensis is a taxon of southern Arizona and western Mexico; N. grayi ssp. grayi is more widespread.
With its whitish farina, lanceolate leaves, and scattered scales, N. grayi most closely resembles Argyrochosma pallens, Notholaena aliena, and N. schaffneri/N. nealleyi. Argyrochosma pallens has short-stalked pinnae (rather than sessile) and sporangia spread along the terminal portions of the veins (rather than confined to the very tips); N. aliena is very closely related to N. grayi but has long whitish hairs on the upper surfaces of its leaves; and N. schaffneri/N. nealleyi have darker leaf stalks, ciliate vs. short-toothed rhizome scales, and bristle-like vs. flat leaf scales (Mickel and Smith, 2004).
- Notholaena hypoleuca
- Vernacular Names: Gray's Cloakfern, Diploid Gray's Cloakfern, Triploid Gray's Cloakfern
Giauque, M. F. A. 1949. Wax glands and prothallia. American Fern Journal 39:33-35.
Mickel, J. T., and A. R. Smith. 2004. The Pteridophytes of Mexico. The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York.
NatureServe. 2008. NatureServe Explorer, Arlington, Virginia. www.natureserve.org/explorer/
Rothfels, C. J., M. D. Windham, A. L. Grusz, G. J. Gastony, and K. M. Pryer. 2008. Toward a monophyletic Notholaena (Pteridaceae): Resolving patterns of evolutionary convergence in xeric-adapted ferns Taxon 57:712-724.
Tryon, R. M. 1956. A revision of the American species of Notholaena. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium 179:1-106.
Windham, M. D. 1993a. Notholaena. Pages 143--149 in Flora of North America (Flora of North American Editorial Committee, ed.) Oxford University Press, New York.
Windham, M. D., and G. Yatskievych. 2003. Chromosome studies of cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae: Cheilanthoideae) from the western United States and Mexico. American Journal of Botany 90:1788-1800.
Wollenweber, E. 1984. Exudate flavonoids of Mexican ferns as chemotaxonomic markers. Rev. Latinoamer. Quim. 15:3-11.
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Carl Rothfels at
Page copyright © 2008 Carl Rothfels
Page: Tree of Life Notholaena grayi Authored by . Gray's Cloakfern.Carl Rothfels. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.
- First online 23 December 2008
- Content changed 23 December 2008
Citing this page:
Rothfels, Carl. 2008. Notholaena grayi http://tolweb.org/Notholaena_grayi/133594/2008.12.23 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/. Gray's Cloakfern. Version 23 December 2008 (under construction).