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| Pellaea gastonyi Windham | Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| TAXONOMY | |||||||||
| Family: | Pteridaceae | ||||||||
| Genus: | Pellaea | ||||||||
| Species Synonyms: | Pellaea canadensis Windham Pellaea atropurpurea (L.) Link |
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| Common Names: | Gastony’s cliff-brake purple-stem cliff-brake |
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| DISTRIBUTION | |||||||||
| Canada: | southwestern Alberta, northwestern Saskatchewan | ||||||||
| Saskatchewan: | northwestern Saskatchewan; Lake Athabasca north shore, Cluff Lake | ||||||||
| Ecoregion: | Athabasca Plain, Tazin Lake Upland | ||||||||
| HABITAT | |||||||||
| Saskatchewan: | limestone cliff crevices | ||||||||
| RARITY STATUS | |||||||||
| Provincial
Status According to Harms (2003): |
Endangered |
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| Nature Conservancy Status: | G2G4 S1 |
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| Saskatchewan
Species at Risk Status: |
None |
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| COSEWIC Status: | None |
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| Gastony’s cliffbrake is endangered because of extreme rarity in Saskatchewan. It is regionally restricted to one general region of the province. No immediate threats are known but are possible in the future. | |||||||||
| SPECIES DESCRIPTION | |||||||||
| Height: | 10 – 50 cm | ||||||||
| Roots: | rhizome compact, short, scaly, somewhat stout; scales to 8 mm long, linear-triangular, tan to rusty, all the same colour, margin entire to slightly square-toothed | ||||||||
| Fronds: | tufted, numerous, of two types, fertile blade much longer than sterile blade; stalk slender 5 – 20 cm long, purplish-black, densely hairy; blades 4 – 30 cm long, 2 – 12 cm wide, bipinnate below, pinnate above, lance-shaped to narrowly triangular; young leaves long-hairy | ||||||||
| Pinnae: | ascending or perpendicular to central axis of blade, with up to 15 pinnules, lower pinnae 1 – 6 cm long, 0.4 – 1 cm wide, longer than the upper, upper pinnae simple, all dark green above, lighter below, hairless above, sparsely hairy below, margin on sterile blades entire to round-toothed and often whitened; fertile segments with a tapered tip, base square to uneven, margin rolled; stalks divergent at a wide angle | ||||||||
| Sori: | marginal, covered by rolled over margin of leaf | ||||||||
| Sporangia: | mostly long-stalked | ||||||||
| Spores: | 32 per spore sac, tan to brown | ||||||||
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