Spore morphology of Elaphoglossum (Dryopteridaceae) species from North-West Argentina

This is a comparative study about spores carried out in North-West Argentine species of the genus Elaphoglossum: E. crassipes (Hieron.) Die Is, E. gayanum (Fee) T. Moore, E. lindbergii (Mett. ex Kuhn) Rosenst.; E. lorentzii (Hieron.) H. Christ, E. piloselloides (C. Presl). T. Moore y E. yungense de la Sota. The spores were studied under light microscope and scanning electron microscope. The spores are monolete and the shape in polar view is elliptic. Mature spores have a sporodermm composed of exospore and perispore. The exospore is always smooth. The macro-ornamentation of perispore can be cristate, muriform (rugate-retate) and stelliform (echinate); granular micro-ornamentation can be seen frequently in perispores. While the aperture is a generic trait, the combination of the micro and macro-ornamentation types of the perispores varies at specific level.