Pteris tremula R.Br.

Yañez, A., Marquez, G. J., Berrueta, P. C. & García, R. A., 2021, An urban fern refugium: Municipal Ecological Reserve of Avellaneda (Eco Área) (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Blumea 66 (3), pp. 227-235 : 232

Pteris tremula R.Br. — Fig. 3e

Origin — Exotic.Native to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji,widely naturalized in the Northern Hemisphere countries and registered as an invasive weed in South Africa ( Baard & Kraaij 2014). In Argentina, it is distributed in coastal areas of the La Plata River (Buenos Aires). It was recently classified as naturalized by Arana et al. (2020).

Habitat & Ecology — Terrestrial.

Location within the reserve — Edge of the main road and near the park ranger’s house and on the edges and under the tourist walkways, in dense populations.

Observations — Throughout the successive annual trips carried out, a striking growth of the populations of this species was observed. While in 2018 only one sterile population was observed on the side of the main road, during 2019 new fertile populations were found and in 2020, the species was found colonizing large sectors under the tourist walkway. A pheno- logical analysis of the population found would be necessary to understand its reproductive strategies and the potential effect of this exotic species on native flora.

Illustration and morphological description reference — Kramer & McCarthy (1998).

Studied specimens. ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires,Mun.Avellaneda, Reserva Ecológica Municipal de Avellaneda (Eco Área), Yañez et al. 476 (BA), 18- IX-2018 ; Yañez et al. 489 (BA, LP), 31-V-2019 .