Feedback request: Polystichum lonchitus (K000790408)

[oldnick]

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Specimen #342157

Taxon:	Dryopteridaceae: Polystichum aculeatum (L.) Roth ("Hard Shield-fern")
Other name:	Dryopteridaceae: Polystichum lonchitis (L.) Roth ("Holly-fern")
Filed in taxon folder:	Dryopteridaceae: Polystichum lonchitis (L.) Roth ("Holly-fern")
Collected by:	Dr Henry Francois Devis
Collection date:	22/8/1878
Locality:	Great Britain, VC48 Merionethshire, Cader Idris, SH71, rocks
Institution:	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Accession number:	K000790408
Image: © Kew

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by oldnick on 3^rd August 2012.

Checked by mossysal

Edit history

date	user	change
05/08/2012	mossysal	Deleted determination (orig): Polystichum lonchitus
05/08/2012	mossysal	Added determination (orig): Polystichum lonchitis
05/08/2012	mossysal	Added determination (orig): Polystichum aculeatum
05/08/2012	mossysal	Deleted determination (orig): Polystichum lonchitis
05/08/2012	mossysal	Deleted determination (orig): Polystichum aculeatum
05/08/2012	mossysal	Added determination (orig): Polystichum lonchitis
05/08/2012	mossysal	Added determination (orig): Polystichum aculeatum

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User comments about this sheet

oldnick wrote

P lonchitis, or possibly an Asplenium? eg A trichomanes ssp pachyrachis?

[mossysal]

Certainly a Polystichum, I would say - not Asplenium with those acuminate teeth.
There is an old record of P lonchitis from Cader, too: though this looks atypical, it's possible. I would tend to think it a young form of P aculeatum. Thanks for flagging it up.

[Roger Horton]

Could this be a 20th century label, and hence the year 1978 rather than 1878? Otherwise HF Devis seems to have had a long life span, unless father and son.

[Tom Humphrey]

It might be 22/8/1918 which would fit with Devis' floreat dates (1900 - 1930).

There's a Kew 1930 stamp, so it's not 1978.

[oldnick]

This presumably could be a mistranscription, unlikely though that must be, as a'1' is usually written with no descender, as well as no horizontal. Seems to me a mystery!?

[Roger Horton]

OK - I now agree this is 1878. All the Kew sheets from Devis appear to have the red printed labels, presumably filled in by Devis himself. The Birmingham sheets on the other hand are associated with Harold Stuart Thompson who seems to have written the labels. Looking through the 'red' labels I don't think there is a chance of confusing 1 with 7, although the 7 sometimes has a cupped top making it look like 4. Often the figure 8 is written like an S without the two loops being completed (which seems to be a 19th century fashion), and easily distinguished from 3 which is always formed by two open curves.

There are apparently several hundred Devis specimens in the Kew herbarium so more evidence may come to light soon.