# A Trio of pteropi



## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Several months ago I purchased some M. pteropus "Narrow Leaf" from an online vendor (pictured below, 'Narrow 1') and assumed that what I received was standard Narrow Leaf Java Fern. Recently another hobbyist (whom I consider to be an expert and rare plant afficianado) sent me some rhizomes of M. pteropus "Narrow Leaf" (pictured below, 'Narrow 2') which are considerably narrower than the plant which I had purchased online as Narrow Leaf. Both of these Narrow Leaf specimens are much narrower than standard M. pteropus (pictured below, 'Standard', for purposes of reference). I can only conclude that I now have two different variants of M. pteropus "Narrow Leaf" but I was not aware that there was more than one type of "Narrow Leaf" :? Am I way off-base here or is one of the supposed "Narrow Leaf" specimens actually some other type of M. pteropus? Thanks again guys


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the "Narrow 1" might be the Philippine variety. Can you take a closeup? 

"Narrow 2" looks like the regular narrow leaf. 

There is what I think is probably a similar species that's similar, but that doesn't look like it.


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## cousinkenni (Jan 24, 2005)

Travis,

i could be way off here but "narrow 1" looks more like phillippine than a narrow leaf. From the picture it looks like it has bumps on the leaves although this could jsut be a lighting thing  

Ken T.


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## cousinkenni (Jan 24, 2005)

Beat me to it

KT


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Here's a close-up of Narrow 1 and you're right, it does have bumps on the leaves.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Thats not Philippines, it is what has been called narrow leaf for a long time until the "real" narrow leaf was introduced (narrow leaf #2) For a long time it was what the farms in Indonesia was producing and was found to be a better aquatic epiphyte than the "regular" Java fern (plant on left in your pic) by the lfs and local hobbyists. Lowcoaster on aquabid was selling this plant (the middle one in your pic) as narrow leaf a while back.

Anyway, the plant on the right is and should be called "narrow leaf". In other threads, there has been mention of a "needle leaf" which we get a glimps of it from a pic link from a European website. The "Needle Leaf" Java fern reported to be sold at Albany aquarium is nothing more than your run of the mill "Narrow Leaf" like the one in your pic. I think it might be time for us to catelog all the different types of Java Fern... too many varieties and inconsistent names.


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Interesting. Checking the Tropica website listing for Microsorum pteropus "Philippine" their picture does bear a strong resemblance to the picture of Narrow 1:

http://www.tropica.com/catalog/images/productcard/varenr008D_large.jpg


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Aaron is correct. You can see from the new pic that it's not Philippine.

There are a bunch of different java fern types and, I think species, that aren't commonly recognized. Tropica has experimented with growing a good many of them but has only gone forward with producing the ones that are really distinct.

I've shown this pic before, but here's one (may even be the one you have) that grows neat rows of sori (spore packets) on either side of the midrib. It looks kind of like polka dots when the plant fills in. Neat stuff. It was given to me as narrow leaf back when the real thing first appeared. It is quite possibly not pteropus.


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

Thanks guys  Just goes to show you how many undocumented and/or unknown species are still out there. I wonder what we'll have commonly available ten years from now? :-s


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## cousinkenni (Jan 24, 2005)

Aaron,

So the "philippine" that Chase gave me on tuesday looks very similart to the middle "narrow 1" photo. How can I distiguish the two? Did Chase really give me the Philippine?

Ken T.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

I have not seen Chase's "Philippines" but I am assuming he has the real thing- I believe he got it from Chuck. "Philippines" is somewhat translucent and much more bullate than "narrow1". The older and larger the plant gets, the more bullate it becomes. Young leaves are pretty flat, little texture. ""narrow1" when young is completely flat, no texture. 

"Philippines" is pretty uncommon still, as it seems only Tropica is the only big nursery who is producing it. Oriental may have it but I have not seen their stocklist in a while.


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