Pentagramma triangularis (Kaulf.) Yatsk.,Windh., & Wollenw.                 

ssp. triangularis

 

= Pityogramma triangularis var. triangularis

 

Pteridaceae (Brake Family)

 

Native

 

Goldenback Fern 

                                March Photo

 

Plant Characteristics:  Perennial, the rhizome stout, with brownish or blackish scales 2-2.5 mm. long; fronds many, 1-4 dm. high, the stipes red-brown when young, darker in age, twice as long as the blades, these deltoid-pentagonal, 6-18 cm. long, almost as broad, pinnate or the basal pinnae again pinnate; pinnules oblong, lobed to subentire, yellow-powdery beneath, glabrous above; sori +/- covering the backs of the pinnules.

 

Habitat:  Common in +/- rocky shaded places below 5000 ft.; many Plant Communities; most of cismontane Calif.; from n. L. Calif. to B.C.

 

Name:  Greek, pityron, bran, and gramme, line, because of the sori.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 31).  Latin, tri, three and Latin, angulus, angle.  (Jaeger 270, 19).  Triangularis, referring to the triangular frond blades.  (my comment).

 

General: Uncommon, found on the bluffs above Back Bay Drive northerly of the Eastbluff burn area and photographed there.  A few weeks later I found the plant again, higher on the bluff, and a little farther northerly.  I had looked unsuccessfully for this species for a number of years and it was not until 1995 that I finally found it. (my comments).      As late as the 19th century, ferns and other non-flowering plants were called “cryptogams” because their reproduction was hidden.  There was lack of understanding about the nature of the “dust” or fernseed that fell from the underside of the leaves; was it a seed or pollen?  Today we know that fernseed is a spore, not a seed as it contains no embryo.  (see Polypodium californicum for more on spore germination)  In Shakespeare’s time, fernseed was believed to have magical properties and it could be used to locate treasure or conserve wealth.  Fernseed could only be collected on the bottommost of a tall stack of pewter plates at midnight of Midsummer’s Eve—provided the goblins and fairies, who were free to roam the woods only on that night, did not snatch if first.  It was even thought that if you placed fernseed among money, it would never decrease, no matter how much was spent.  (Machol, Guenther K.  “FROM SPORE TO SPORLING: THE BIRTH OF A FERN”  FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society Vol. 32, No. 2 April 2004 pp. 10-15).         A rather small genus, largely from trop. America.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 31).      A puzzling complex of intergrading chemical, chromosomal, and morphological variants; for these we prefer the rank of var. but have used ssp. here because combinations of that rank already exist.  (Hickman, Ed. 108).

 

Text Ref:  Abrams, Vol. I 20; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 32; Hickman, Ed. 108; Roberts 4.

Photo Ref:  Mar 95 # 11,13,14,24A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found:  March 1995.

 

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 473.

Have plant specimen

Last Edit 4/12/05.

 

                                 March Photo                                                        March Photo