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D. caucasica resources
Monograph
Hoshizaki and WilsonHoshizaki and Wilson

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Dryopteris caucasica (A. Braun) Fraser-Jenk. & Corley
Etymology Caucasica means from the Caucasus, the region between the Black and Caspian seas.
Description Rhizome: short-creeping, forming clumps of a few fronds.
Frond: 100 cm high by 20 cm wide, deciduous, monomorphic, blade/stipe ratio: 3:1.
Stipe: grooved, scales sparse, pale brown, triangular to ovate-lanceolate, up to 2 cm, vascular bundles: 3-7 in a c-shaped pattern.
Blade: 2-pinnate, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, narrow, herbaceous to somewhat leathery, linear to ovate scales below, absent above.
Pinnae: catadromous; costae grooved above, continuous from rachis to costae; margins entire to lobed to crenate with paired teeth; veins free, forked.
Sori: round, in 1 row between midrib and margin, indusium: reniform, white until shrivelling, at a sinus, sporangia: very dark.
Culture Habitat: forests in montane regions. Distribution: Caucasus, Crimea, Turkey, northwestern Iran. Hardy to -25°C, USDA Zone 5.
Synonyms
Aspidium affine Fisch. & Mey.
Aspidium caucasicum A. Braun
Dryopteris filix-mas ssp. caucasica (A.Braun) Askerov
Dryopteris caucasica habit
Dryopteris caucasica. Habit spreading.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Notes
Compare to D. filix-mas, of which it is one parent. Distinguished by the narrower pinnae with more separated pinnules and more deeply serrate margins
Dryopteris caucasica fertile frond
Dryopteris caucasica. Fertile frond; sori are confined to upper half except for the pinnatifid apex.  Photo: Tom Stuart
Dryopteris caucasica
Dryopteris caucasica.  Illustration from The Cultivated Species of the Fern Genus Dryopteris in the United States, Barbara Joe Hoshizaki and Kenneth A. Wilson, American Fern Journal, 89, 1, (1999), with permission.
Dryopteris caucasica
Dryopteris caucasica. Vascular bundles at the stipe base: two primary at the stipe front, five others in varying sizes in a c-shape. The smaller ones are not visible without a hand lens.  Scan: Tom Stuart
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