Clades:
Dicksoniaceae.
Genus: 2 species.
Region: America, Cuba, Mexico to Chile, Argentina.
English: Diamondleaf fern.
Spanish: Ampe; Palmilla.
Use: ornamental, in parks and gardens; as cut foliage in flower bouquets; sprouts, called perritos, in salads.
BotanyFern; 1 to 4 m tall; alternating generations, a sporophyte and a gametophyte.
Root: rhizome, massive; with hairs.
Stem: no trunk, radial symmetry typical of tree ferns.
Leaves: large; multiple, 2 to 4 pinnate; petiole raised adaxially, with hairs on the under side; pneumathodes, discrete vent lines, or patches, present on the rachis, petiole and rhizome; margin does not form part of an indusium.
Sori: without indusia ; on the abaxial, lower surface, on the veins of the last pinnae; with numerous hairs between the sporangia.
Sporangia: leptosporangiate = with a foot, capsule with a single-cell wall thickness, and dehiscent ring in the capsule; the ring is oblique, complete, not interrupted by the foot of the sporangium. Spores: trilete marks, with a central belt.
TaxonomyFormerly assigned its own family, Lophosoriaceae, Metaxyaceae or
Cyatheaceae. Genetic analysis has placed the species unequivocally in the family
Dicksoniaceae