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Pellaea atropurpurea
Also called Hairy Cliffbrake, Purple Stem Cliffbrake, Purple Stemmed Cliffbrake, Purple Stem Cliff Brake
Pellaea atropurpurea, commonly known as purple-stem cliffbrake or just purple cliffbrake, is a fern native to North and Central America. Brake is an old word for fern, related to the word bracken. Like many other members of the Pteridaceae, it is a rock plant, needing a calcareous substrate.
P. atropurpurea is an apogamous autotriploid, with 3n=87 (actual base number, n=29), and is one of the historical parents of the hybrid species complex, Pellaea glabella. Apogamy, or the ability to reproduce non-sexually, is common among rock ferns in the Pteridaceae.
Pellaea atropurpurea grows in the crevices of dry limestone cliffs, rocky slopes, crevices in alvars, and mortared walls. It is endangered in Florida, Iowa, and Rhode Island. It has become extinct in Louisiana since the limestone caprock of a salt dome at Winfield, the only location for the fern in the state, was quarried away.
Coffee cliffbrake · Sierra cliffbrake · Brewer's cliffbrake · Bridges' cliffbrake · Creeping Sickle Fern · Pellaea calomelanos · Sickle Fern · Smooth cliffbrake · Birdfoot cliffbrake · Dwarf Sickle Fern · Heart Fern · Button Fern
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pellaea atropurpurea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
