Fern - Polystichum sp. aff. mehrae, relabelled Polystichum neolobatum

I recently started paying attention to ferns. It seemed so daunting, so many of them and so hard to distinguish them. Well, one at a time. This Polystichum sp. aff. mehrae * is very attractive with its stiff shiny leaves. I'd be interested to know what about it prevents naming it Polystichum mehrae.

* [Edited 17 Nov 2019] As my first sentence indicates, I have essentially no knowledge of ferns; the name I used was straight from the label.

 

The spores for this accession were collected by Peter Wharton in Sichuan. Ferns are difficult to ID. Looking at the description in Flora of China this fern does not quite fit (Sori in 1 row on each side of midrib?) It is assumed to be a hybrid, but we don't know what it is for sure.

 

Nice looking fern, wonder if it is evergreen.

 

Hi Wendy, Eric and chimera!

My name is Erwin Gruber, botanist, gardenkeeper, native to Styria, Austria.
I saw the very same ferns at iNaturalist report, ID now changed to ?? see below, and from Wendy's photo at her flickr account.
For some time it had been tentatively identified as Polystichum mehrae after Eric's kind response to me.
Now i asked David Barrington, Polystichum expert from UV Vermont for ID help, and got his quick and kind response as:

"It is certainly not Polystichum mehrae, which is a smaller plant with shorter, less dissected pinnae. Your naming it Polystichum neolobatum is correct. As you may know, P. neolobatum is an allotriploid apomictic species. It is the subject of active research in my lab by Nikisha Patel; we have found that there are three races of P. neolobatum—this plant is probably from the race that has P. squarrosum in its heritage, based on the strong teeth on the edge of some of the pinnules."

After all the riddle about right species or potential hybrid seems to be solved, apart from the fact that Polystichum neolobatum does represent a group of different apomictic ferns, respectively species'.
In case you wished, you may read the story at this report Asian Saber Fern (Polystichum neolobatum) observed by aunty on August 19, 2015 · iNaturalist.org

Best regards
Erwin

 

Thank you Erwin. This was discussed by curators here and I changed the name in our database. We are happy to have the ID.

 

Thank you Eric for doing the name change.

Sure, this is no "fern forum" in especial, but let me add a few details to namings.
Genus "Polystichum" says: poly = many, plus stichon(um) = row, meaning sori (spore clusters) arranged in several rows at leaflets' lower surface (doesn't matter this won't match all species'!)
Species "neolobatum" says: neos = new, plus lobatum = lobed. It had been named for (superficial) similar appearance to Polystichum lobatum, nowadays treated as synonym to P. aculeatum, native to large parts of Europe, rather abundant locally at my home in Styria, Austria.
In former times, many kinds of Polystichum around the globe had been regarded as P. aculeatum, resp. P. lobatum, or as infraspecific descendants (var., subsp., fa.).

Eric, you, or somebody from UBC BG may drop a mail to me, in case you wished to get spores of ferns (or sporophytes) native to my home region.
I needed just to know about procedure to get permittance so far possible at all, and how to pack sendings.

Perhaps this forum could need a separate listing of postings concerning ferns, fern-like plants and mosses?

Kind regards
Erwin

p.s. Ferns are not the only plants i do like and know a little about.