A synopsis of Ptisana Murdock ferns (Marattiaceae) in New Caledonia based on sequence data and morphology with the recognition of a new vulnerable species, P. soluta (Compton) Murdock & Perrie, comb. nov., stat. nov. Author Shepherd, Lara D. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 6011 (New Zealand) lara.shepherd@tepapa.govt.nz Author Murdock, Andrew G. Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, 2151 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States) andymurdock@berkeley.edu Author Amice, Rémy Independent researcher, Nouméa (New Caledonia) amicelr@lagoon.nc Author Perrie, Leon R. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington 6011 (New Zealand) leon.perrie@tepapa.govt.nz text Adansonia 2023 3 2023-02-20 45 3 41 59 journal article 55064 10.5252/adansonia2023v45a3 9c423299-73fd-4c27-b497-fa7b98850ed9 1639-4798 7665061

TABLE 1. — Morphological characters distinguishing the three species of Ptisana Murdock in New Caledonia. All characters need further investigation, particularly those marked * which are difficult to assess in herbarium material or images thereof.

		P. rolandi-principis (Rosenst.)
	P. attenuata (Labill.) Murdock	Christenh.	P. soluta comb. nov., stat. nov.
Stipe length	> 100 cm except in juveniles	≤ 25 cm	> 100 cm except in juveniles
Stipe colour	purplish-black	brown, speckled blackish-purple	patchy dark-brown to green
Stipe texture	transversely and irregularly wrinkled	smooth	smooth
Lamina dimensions	> 100 cm for both length and width,	fertile plants 5.9-15.6 cm long,	> 100 cm for both length and width,
	except in juveniles	5.1-13.3 cm wide	except in juveniles
Lamina division	uniformly 3-pinnate when fertile, but	1- to 2-pinnate	fertile plants 3-pinnate proximally
	2-pinnate in juveniles up to		but 2-pinnate distally; juveniles
	c. 40 cm long.		unknown but presumably may be
			2-pinnate
Number of	many	absent, or up to 2 pairs on a primary	many
secondary pinnae		pinna
Pinnule margins	serrulate to serrate, more prominently	prominently and irregularly serrate;	sub-entire to serrulate, more clearly
	towards the pinnule apex where it	larger teeth comprising multiple	serrated towards the pinnule apex
	is sometimes doubly-serrate (with	veins
	2-3 veins per tooth). Juveniles
	can approach P. rolandi-principis,
though rarely so irregular.
Colour of costae *	green-brown or brown (perhaps	purplish-black on both surfaces	green-brown or brown
	darker in juveniles)	(at least when fresh)
Vein colour	pinnule mid-veins green or brown	pinnule mid-veins purplish-black;	pinnule mid-veins green or brown (at
on abaxial	(at least with magnification);	lateral veins black	least with magnification); lateral
surface *	lateral veins usually green		veins usually green but can be c.
	but can be c. black		black
Scales on abaxial	dark brown, flexuous, narrowly	black, narrowly triangular	black, flexuous, narrowly triangular
lamina *	triangular with multiple marginal	with multiple marginal cilia on	sometimes with marginal cilia on
	cilia on costae and pinnule mid-	costae and pinnule mid-veins,	costae and pinnule mid-veins, to
	veins, to brown, curly c. stellate on	to c. stellate on lateral veins	brown, c. stellate on lateral veins
lateral veins
Stipule morphology *	Deeply divided to claw-like	Divided, chartaceous	Shallowly divided to nearly entire with
			ragged margins