Meniscium arborescens Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Sp. Pl.

Kessler, Michael, Smith, Alan R., Øllgaard, Benjamin, Matos, Fernando B. & Moran, Robbin C., 2023, Prodromus of a fern flora of Bolivia. XLII. Update I., Phytotaxa 630 (3), pp. 183-210 : 205

Meniscium arborescens Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd., Sp. Pl. 5: 133. 1810.

Range:— Cuba, Dominican Republic; southern Mexico to Bolivia (PA), Brazil, and Paraguay.

Ecology:— Rare; terrestrial in humid forests; 220 m, to ca. 800 m elsewhere.

Notes:— Fernandes & Salino (2020) cited a specimen from Pando, a new record for Bolivia: Manuripi, 220 m, Jimenez 1967 (NY, UC). This specimen had previously been identified by us as M. longifolium . It is a problematic specimen, not typical M. arborescens , but not M. longifolium either; pending further collections, we keep it as M. arborescens .

[ Meniscium falcatum Liebm., Kongel. Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., Naturvidensk. Math. Afd. , ser. 5(1): 183 (seors. 31). 1849.

= Thelypteris falcata (Liebm.) R.M. Tryon, Rhodora 69(777): 6. 1967]

Notes:— This widespread species was not included for Bolivia by Smith & Kessler (2017). However, Fernandes & Salino (2020) cited it from Cuba, southern Mexico to Panama, and Colombia and Venezuela to Bolivia, based on seven Bolivian specimens: Beck 442 (UC), Eberhardt 236 (UC), Jiménez & Gallego 1047 (UC), Kessler 9703 (UC), Kessler 11197 (UC), and “ without collector s.n.” (UC) [should be Krukoff 11128]. However, all of these appear to us to be typical M. pachysorum , as determined and cited by Fernandes (2015). This species is usually readily distinguishable from M. falcatum by the long-petiolulate pinnae that are rounded at the base, these pinnae very broad (to 5 cm) and more elliptic than lanceolate (as in M. falcatum ), and very large fronds, to 4.5 m – the key characters distinguishing M. pachysorum from M. falcatum ( Fernandes and Salino 2020) . In fact, Krukoff 11128 (UC) was cited in 2020 as M. falcata , “ without collector, s.n.”; specimens with this same number (from F, GH, K, MO, and NY) were cited by Fernandes & Salino (2020) as M. pachysorum . As a consequence of these possible changes of mind, resulting confusion, and our understanding of the taxonomic differences, we conclude that true M. falcatum does not occur in Bolivia, and that specimens so identified from Bolivia are all M. pachysorum .