About Dryopteris pallida (Bory) Maire & Petitm.
Dryopteris pallida (Bory) Maire & Petitm. is a small to moderately sized winter-green fern in the Dryopteris genus. It has very pale, broad chaffy scales on its long, somewhat pale stem, and its leaves are often a distinct pallid green; glands may be present on the plant. Its fronds are 2-pinnate (two-fold divided), with final leaflets (called pinnules) that are usually clearly stalked and noticeably lobed; sometimes the leaflets are almost further divided into a 3-pinnate structure. Frond divisions are not highly asymmetrical, meaning the lower portion of the first frond divisions (called pinnae) closest to the base of the plant is somewhat similar to their upper portion, and their subdivisions are similar to adjacent subdivisions. Fertile sori located under the leaflets are round, with an incompletely rounded, kidney-shaped (reniform) indusium covering. The sori are arranged in two lines, with one line on each side of the leaflet axis. This fern grows in habitats ranging from alkaline to acidic, at elevations between 0 and 3000 meters, in woods, scrubs, and slopes, and it typically avoids dry ground. Four subspecies are recorded with the following ranges and traits: subsp. pallida is found in Albania, Algeria, Balearic Islands, Corsica, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Italy, Crete, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sardinia, Sicily, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. subsp. balearica (Litard.) Fraser-Jenk. is found only in the Balearic Islands; its fronds reach no more than 25 cm in length, have a deltate shape, and a stalk that makes up more than 50% of the total frond length. subsp. libanotica (Rosenst.) E.Nardi is found in Cyprus, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, and Turkey. subsp. raddeana (Fomin) E.Nardi is found in Iran and Transcaucasus. Resimli Türkiye Florası disagrees with Plants of the World on the classification of Turkish plants of this species, placing Turkish populations as subsp. raddeana.
