Lygodium heterodoxum

Lygodium heterodoxum
Pinnae, with fertile ones on the right
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Schizaeales
Family: Lygodiaceae
Genus: Lygodium
Species:
L. heterodoxum
Binomial name
Lygodium heterodoxum
Synonyms[1]
  • Hydroglossum heterodoxum (Kunze) T.Moore
  • Lygodictyon heterodoxum (Kunze) J.Sm.
  • Hydroglossum mexicanum Fée
  • Hydroglossum spectabile Liebm.
Spore-producing lobes beginning to form at fertile pinnule's margin, and forking, interconnecting veins
Unwinding leaf tip, the crozier

Lygodium heterodoxum, with no widely used common name other than climbing fern, which is applicable to all species of the genus Lygodium, is a fern native to tropical parts the Americas.[1]

Description

With Lygodium heterodoxum and other Lygodium species, what appears to be a twining stem with several compound leaves, or fronds, actually is just one big leaf, with the apparent stem being the leaf's twining rachis. The actual stem is a rhizome growing below ground or at the ground's surface.[2] Keeping this unusual growth pattern in mind, here are other key features of Lygodium heterodoxum:[3]

  • The rhizome is short-creeping with brown hairs.
  • The leaf's rachis is straw-colored and hairless. Its first divisions off the rachis consist of pinnae divided into divergent subdivisions, or "pinnules," each of which is more or less dichotomously forked or nearly completely divided twice- (to three- or more-times), forming four to several 3-cut or narrowly oblong lobes. Lobes are up to 20 cm (7+3⁄4 in) long and 2 cm (3⁄4 in) wide, hairless, with margins without teeth or indentations, and blades with branching veins connecting once or twice with one another after issuing from the midvein.
  • On the margins of fertile pinnules, spores are produced on finger-like lobes about 1 mm (1⁄16 in) wide each bearing two rows of sporangia, with each sporangium covered with a yellow, hairless, pocket-like covering serving as an "indusium."

Distribution

Lygodium heterodoxum occurs in southern Mexico's states of Veracruz, Puebla, Tabasco, Oaxaca and Chiapas.[4] In Central America it occurs throughout, except in El Salvador.[5]

Habitat

In Mexico's Veracruz state, Lygodium heterodoxum occurs in tropical forests with deciduous, semi-deciduous and evergreen leaves.[6] In Nicaragua, Lygodium heterodoxum occurs in cloud forests and forests with plenty of rain at elevations of from 15–1,150 m (49–3,773 ft).[3] In Belize, it inhabits tropical primary forest.[7]

Ecology

Coinciding with the species' preference for wet environments, a study found that over 99% of the spores of Lygodium heterodoxum stored in dark, dry conditions for one year failed to germinate, while 40% of the spores stored in dark, water-imbibed conditions did germinate.[8]

In traditional medicine

In Guatemala, Lygodium heterodoxum, as well as Lygodium venustum, have been used to treat epilepsy.[9] In Nicaragua the leaf is used both internally and externally to treat snakebite.[10]

Taxonomy

In 1849 when Gustav Kunze formally described and named Lygodium heterodoxum, his type specimen was a dried collection by Henri Guillaume Galeotti,[11] who collected plants in Mexico from 1835 to 1840.[12]

Phylogeny

Molecular phylogenetic analysis supports the assumption that Lygodium heterodoxum is an allopolyploid, possibly deriving from a cross between Lygodium merrillii and the ancestor of Lygodium circinatum and Lygodium conforme.[13]

Etymology

The genus name Lygodium is from the Greek lygodes, meaning "flexible." This refers to the twining rachis of Lygodium species.[14]

The species name heterodoxum is based on the Greek heterodoxos, meaning "of another or different opinion."[15] The name was chosen because Kunze regarded the species unusual among most of the Lygodium species he knew, mainly because of how veins in its pinnules interconnected.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 "Lygodium heterodoxum Kunze". Plants of the World Online. United Kingdom: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Retrieved August 17, 2026.
  2. ↑ Mehltreter, Klaus (January–March 2006). "Leaf Phenology of the Climbing Fern Lygodium venustum in a Semideciduous Lowland Forest on the Gulf of Mexico". American Fern Journal. 96 (1). The American Fern Society: 21–30. doi:10.1640/0002-8444(2006)96[21:LPOTCF]2.0.CO;2. Retrieved August 15, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Lygodium heterodoxum Kunze". The World Flora Online (2026) (in Spanish and English). published on the Internet from the Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden and the Flora of Nicaragua. Retrieved August 17, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  4. ↑ Villaseñor, José Luis (August 4, 2016). "Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico". Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. 87 (3). Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. doi:10.1016/j.rmb.2016.06.017. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  5. ↑ Hassler, Michael (August 2, 2026). "Lygodium heterodoxum Kunze". Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora. Version 26.08. Germany: World Plants. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  6. ↑ Tejero-Díez, Daniel; Torrez-Díaz, Alin; Mickel, John; et al. (2011). "Helechos y licopodios". In Cruz Angón, Andrea (ed.). La biodiversidad en Veracruz estudio de estado (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Mexico. ISBN 978-607-7607-51-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ↑ "Lygodium heterodoxum Kunze". nybg.org. Bronx, NY, USA: New York Botanical Garden. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  8. ↑ Pérez-García, Blanca; Orozco-Segovia, Alma; Riba, Ramón (November 1, 1994). "The effects of white fluorescent light, far-red light, darkness, and moisture on spore germination of Lygodium heterodoxum (Schizaeaceae)". American Journal of Botany {abstract}. 81 (11). Wiley: 1367–1369. Bibcode:1994AmJB...81.1367P. doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1994.tb15619.x. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  9. ↑ Castillo Paz, Andrea Michelle (November 3, 2021). Elucidación del potencial neuroprotector de principios activos de plantas de uso tradicional en Guatemala, análisis in silico (PDF). website (Tesis para optar al título de Químico Farmacéutico thesis) (in Spanish). Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos Guatemala. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  10. ↑ Félix-Silva, Juliana; Silva-Junior, Arnóbio Antônio; Zucolotto, Silvana Maria; Fernandes-Pedrosa, Matheus de Freitas (August 21, 2017). "Medicinal Plants for the Treatment of Local Tissue Damage Induced by Snake Venoms: An Overview from Traditional Use to Pharmacological Evidence". Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2017 (1) 5748256. Wiley Online Library. doi:10.1155/2017/5748256. PMC 5585606.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. 1 2 Kunze, Gustav (1849). Farrnkräuter (in German and Latin). Vol. 2. pp. 32–35.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  12. ↑ Martens, M.; Galeotti, H. (1842). "Extrait de tome XV des Mémoires". Mémoire sur les fougéres du Mexique, et considérations sur la géographie botanique de cette contrée (PDF) (in French). Académie Royale de Bruxelles.
  13. ↑ Pelosi, Jessie A.; Zumwalde, Bethany A.; Testo, Weston L.; et al. (August 20, 2024). "All tangled up: Unraveling phylogenetics and reticulate evolution in the vining ferns, Lygodium (Schizaeales)". American Journal of Botany. 111 (9) e16389. Wiley Online Library. Bibcode:2024AmJB..11116389P. doi:10.1002/ajb2.16389. PMID 39162392. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  14. ↑ Nauman, Clifton E. "Lygodium Swartz. In Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA)". St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA, USA: New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
  15. ↑ Harper, Douglas; Felix, Talia. "Origin and history of heterodox". etymonline. Retrieved August 18, 2026.
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