Utah Bladderfern

Description:

Cystopteris utahensis Windham & Haufler. A Utah rare species, and at least moderately globally rare. This particular plant was pointed out during a field trip by the primary author of the taxon, i.e. by Dr. Michael Windham, formerly curator at the Garrett Herbarium at the University of Utah.C. utahensis is tetraploid. Both of its ancestral parents are diploid (C. bulbifera and C.reevesiana). C. bulbifera has (depending on time of year) larger bulbets on the abaxial leaf blades or stems whereas the abortive bulbets of C. utahensis are small and have long narrow scales that can make them look like small green spiders with dark legs. The plant pictured above however did not have any of these small abortive bulblets (except I think there may be one, just to the right of my thumb, see note; to see it, view the largest picture and zoom in). In Utah County where this picture was taken, this species is some 175+ air miles from the type locality to the southeast. C. reevesiana does not occur this far north, but some also disjunct C. bulbifera does.The spores of the tetraploid C. utahensis are larger than those of the diploid C. bulbifera.July 25, 2009, American Fork Canyon, Utah County, Utah, approx. 5,850 ft. elev.Note: Dr. Stanley Welsh does not recognize C. utahensis and includes it within the also 4x C. fragilis. The morphological differences are subtle and difficult exacerbated by the fact that C. fragilis is not only variable but is thought to be speciating in the western United States and that these various species of Cystopteris readily hybridize with each other and when a 2x plant meets a 4x plant can produce sterile triploids; combined however with the genetic work by Windham et al, C. utahensis appears to be worthy of recognition (and it isn't quite as directly related to C. fragilis as once thought although it but does share a common parent, C. reevisana).