Cyrtomium fortunei J. Sm.
(for Robert Fortune, 1812–1880, Scottish plant explorer and collector in China, who was responsible for introducing tea from China into India)
Local names: Asian net-vein holly fern, hardy Japanese holly fern, fortune’s net-vein holly fern, Fortune’s cyrtomium
Native to Japan, Korea, southeast China, Vietnam and eastern Thailand, is known in the U.S. in AR (Peck 2011b), GA, LA, MS, OR, and SC (e.g., MacDougal 1976; Landry et al. 1979). Rhizome scales brown; pinnae sometimes with a short basal lobe on the acroscopic side; indusia tan to pale brown, uniformly colored, shriveling at maturity. [Phanerophlebia fortunei (J. Sm.) Copel., Polystichum falcatum var. fortunei (J. Sm.) Matsum., Polystichum fortunei (J. Sm.) Nakai] This is a variable species in which several varieties have been named (Hoshizaki & Moran 2001); plants naturalized in the U.S. are reported to be var. fortunei (Yatskievych 1993a). It can be distinguished from C. falcatum by its pinnae being in (8–)10–25 pairs, papery, not shiny on upper surface, and with the margins minutely crenulate-denticulate (finely toothed) including close to the tip. It is an apogamous triploid (n = 2n = 123) (Yatskievych 1993a). Given that the species is known from LA (e.g., Landry et al. 1979) and AR (Peck 2011b), it is included here as a note to alert collectors and others to be aware of it as a possibility as an escape from cultivation in TX.: Back to List :