Ptisana salicifolia (Schrad.) Senterre & Rouhan, 2014

Senterre, Bruno, Rouhan, Germinal, Fabre, Isabelle, Morel, Charles & Christenhusz, Maarten J. M., 2014, Revision of the fern family Marattiaceae in the Seychelles with two new species and a discussion of the African Ptisana fraxinea complex., Phytotaxa 158 (1), pp. 57-75 : 71

Ptisana salicifolia (Schrad.) Senterre & Rouhan , comb. nov.

Marattia salicifolia Schrader (1818: 920) . Ptisana fraxinea var. salicifolia (Schrad.) Murdock (2008b: 746) .

Type:— SOUTH AFRICA. Cape of Good Hope, Hesse s.n. (holotype LE) .

This species has a relatively wide distribution and it forms a complex not with Ptisana fraxinea but with an undescribed species (here treated as Ptisana sp. A ) found further north into tropical East Africa and westwards to Guinea. Diagnostic characters of Ptisana salicifolia are detailed by Pichi-Sermolli (1969: 336). It differs from most species by its large leaves that can grow to 3 m long, arching (not upright), with the laminae longer than the petioles, with at least 6 pairs of pinnae, and it has very stout rhizomes, more than 30 cm tall. It differs from Ptisana sp. A by its pinnae rachises that are manifestly winged between the terminal pinnule and the last 5–8 pairs, and the last upper lateral pinnules mostly gradually and evidently smaller than the others, except for the terminal pinnules which are longer and often pinnatifid or pinnatipartite at the base.

Distribution: —Typical Ptisana salicifolia occurs in South Africa (e.g. A. Rehmann 384, P01647484!), Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique (see online flora of Zimbabwe: http://plants.jstor.org/flora/fz7513).