Metaxya lanosa, a second species in the genus and fern family Metaxyaceae

We describe and illustrate Metaxya lanosa, the second known species in the genus and the fern family Metaxyaceae (Pteridophyta). It is currently known from four different watersheds in Amazonian Peru and Venezuela. It can be distinguished readily from M. rostrata by the noticeably woolly-hairy stipes and rachises (hairs red-brown or orange-brown and easily abraded), broader, more elliptic pinnae, cartilaginous and whitish pinna margins, more distinct veins abaxially, and longer pinna stalks, especially on the distal pinnae, rbcL data from a very limited sampling are ambiguous but do not reject support for the recognition of at least two species within Metaxya.

Duke Scholars

Author Kathleen M. Pryer Biology