Netted Adder's Tongue

reticulatum: netlike, like a network; referring to the venation pattern.

Rhizome linear to oval, 10-22 mm long often arising from a horizontal root; roots fleshy, horizontal, proliferous; leaf bases not persistent. Leaves 1 to 2 (sometimes up to 4), held at 50-80% from the horizontal, bright green. Petiole up to 40-130 mm long, 35–60% of its length subterranean. Sterile lamina 24-80 × 20-60 mm, circular to broadly ovate, length:width ratio 1.5–2.1:1, apex pointed with a short mucro to rounded, base deeply notched to truncate, texture fleshy; fertile spike 80–250 mm long, inserted at the base of the lamina or up to 2 cm below the apparent base, with 20–45 pairs of sporangia, apex narrowly to broadly pointed.

S. Africa, tropical Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands, Central and South America.

Ophioglossum reticulatum L,. Sp. PI. 1063. 1753
Plant 13-36 cm. high ; rhizome cylindric, 0.7-20 mm. long, 3-5 mm. thick ; roots fleshyfibrous, persistent, mostly 1 mm. thick; leaves usually soHtary, sometimes two; commonstalk 3-15 cm. long, usually mostly epigean ; lamina usually short-stalked, somewhat folded below, nearly horizontal, deltoid-ovate to reniform, auriculate or rarely truncate, acute, obtuse or rounded above, sometimes apiculate, 2.5-10 cm. long, 2-6.8 cm. broad; areolae mostly compound with few to many free or anastomosing included veinlets; sporophyl 6.5-26 cm. long, the spike slender, 1.8-6.5 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. thick, more or less apiculate ; sporangia 18-60-jugate ; spores .03-. 04 mm. thick, finely pitted or reticulate, the areolae about 20 to the semicircumference, the ridges finely verrucose.
Type locality : Near L^ogane, Haiti. Distribution : Pan-tropic ; altitude 500-800 meters.

Ophioglossum reticulatum, the netted adder's-tongue, is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae. It has a pantropical/pansubtropical distribution; Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Yemen, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, warmer parts of China, Malesia, Korea, Japan, and many tropical islands. A hexaploid, it has the highest number of chromosomes of any plant, 720. Its leaves—or leaf, individuals only grow one per year—are edible, and are regularly consumed by people in Africa and Asia.