Christensenia
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Christensenia | ||||||||||||
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Christensenia (syn. Kaulfussia C.Presl) is a genus of ferns in the botanical family Marattiaceae.
Christensenia (1 or 2 species) is unique in the Marattiaceae, because of its reticulate venation, palmately arranged leaves and radial synangia. Christensenia produces enormous amounts of spores, up to 7000 spores per sporangium. The genus is confined to the Indo-Malayan region. Rolleri (1993) revised the genus and recognized two species (C. aesculifolia and C. lobbiana, and the variety C. a. var. korthalsii) based on minor, non-discriminative characters. The presence of a radial synangium is an archaic character, very similar to some of the fossil Asterothecaceae/Psaroniaceae, such as Scolecopteris. Christensenia has no fossil record.
Species
- Christensenia aesculifolia (Blume) Maxon
- Christensenia assamica (Griff.) Ching
- Christensenia lobbiana (de Vriese) Rolleri
[edit] References
- BRUMMITT, R. K. (1992) Vascular plant families and genera. Royal Botanic Gardens
- Pink, A. (2004). Gardening for the Million. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
- Rolleri, C. H. 1993. Revision of the genus Christensenia. Amer. Fern J. 83(1): 3-19.