Counting Fingers

We’ve recently written about the running tongue ferns, Pyrrosia lingua, but wanted to delve deeper into those winter hardy Pyrrosia species which, instead, form tight clumps. The two most prevalent clumping species in cultivation are Pyrrosia hastata and Pyrrosia polydactyla. Unfortunately, the two species are thoroughly mixed in the trade, most likely because they came to the US via Japan identified incorrectly. With only a couple of exceptions, virtually every plant I’ve purchased in the US as Pyrrosia hastata was actually Pyrrosia polydactyla. So, what is the difference?

Let’s start with the two epithets, polydactyla and hastata. Polydactyla is a Latin word meaning “many fingers”, while hastata means “sword like with side appendages” The first image below is true Pyrrosia hastata. As you can see, it has two large appendages to the main leaf blade, and two smaller ones. This seems to be where some people get confused, counting five lobes, and assuming their plant is Pyrrosia polydactyla. The reality is that both species are variable from spores, so the number of lobes isn’t by itself, enough to distinguish these two from each other. Pyrrosia hastata is also a much smaller plant, never growing to even 50% the size of Pyrrosia polydactyla.

Pyrrosia hastata ‘Storm Watch’

The plant below is one of our sporelings of Pyrrosia polydactyla, which shows the classic five lobes. This and the two clones below that are all spore-grown from our collection from a single site in Taiwan, so you can see the amount of variability in the offspring.

Pyrrosia polydactyla

The photo below is another spore-grown Pyrrosia polydactyla with 5-7 lobes per leaf.

Pyrrosia polydactyla

The photo below is a spore-grown plant with 7-8 lobes per leaf.

Pyrrosia polydactyla

There are also some single leaf pyrrosia species that are winter hardy here. The best two in our climate are Pyrrosia subfurfuracea ‘Red China’ and Pyrrosia drakeana. Pyrrosia subfurfuracea has a large range from the Eastern Himalayas to Yunnan, China, and south into Indo-China, where it can be found up to 6,000′ elevation. The cultivar ‘Red China’ is obviously from China, and should represent some of the hardiest genetics from this widespread species.

Pyrrosia subfurfuracea ‘Red China’

Pyrrosia drakeana, which hails from Arunachal Pradesh into Central China, where it can be found up to 12,000′ elevation, should be one of the most cold hardy of the clumping, single leaf species. This particular accession is from 6,000′ elevation in China’s Hubei Province.

Pyrrosia drakeana

The most stunning solitary leaf tongue fern is Pyrrosia sheareri, from Taiwan, Southern China and adjacent Vietnam at elevations up to 7,500′. Oddly, this is one we’ve struggled (0 for 4) to keep alive in the garden, despite others in the region growing it successfully. Most likely, we need to plant it closer to a rock, since most Pyrrosias can grow either in the ground, on a tree, or a rock.

Pyrrosia sheareri

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