Belongs within: Polypodiales. The Blechnaceae include the hard ferns and chain ferns. The family is cosmopolitan, but most diverse in the southern temperate and tropical regions. In some species, reproductive and sterile fronds may be very different in appearance, and have sometimes been mistaken for fronds of separate species. Blechnum species have sori in a… Continue reading Blechnaceae
Category: Pan-Monilophyta
Polypodiales
Belongs within: Leptosporangiatae.Contains: Lindsaeaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae, Pteridaceae, Cystopteridaceae, Asplenium, Hymenasplenium, Thelypteridaceae, Woodsia, Blechnaceae, Athyriaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Nephrolepis, Aspidiaceae, Davalliaceae, Polypodiaceae. The Polypodiales are a diverse clade of ferns bearing sporangia with a vertical annulus interrupted by the stalk and stomium. Epiphytic habits are common within the clade. The earliest unambiguous fossils of Polypodiales are known from the… Continue reading Polypodiales
Asplenium
Belongs within: Polypodiales. Asplenium, the spleenworts, is a large cosmopolitan genus of ferns: some species are even found in Arctic or arid habitats (Kramer & Viane 1990). Species of this genus are very diverse in superficial appearance, including species with much divided fronds, undivided fronds and even aquatic rheophytes. However, attempts to subdivide Asplenium have… Continue reading Asplenium
Ophioglossaceae
Belongs within: Monilophyta. The Ophioglossaceae include the adder’s tongue ferns and moonworts. Members of this family have only one or two leaves per plant, with the leaf divided between a sterile basal section and a spore-producing distal section. Gametophytes are subterranean and non-photosynthesising, as in their sister group the Psilotaceae. Ophioglossum, adder’s tongues, have undivided… Continue reading Ophioglossaceae
Monilophyta
Belongs within: Pan-Monilophyta.Contains: Botryopteridales, Leptosporangiatae, Marattiales, Equisetopsida, Ophioglossaceae. The Monilophyta are the crown clade including ferns and related plants, whisk ferns (Psilotaceae) and horsetails (Equisetum). The clade is supported by molecular data, as well as possibly by the exclusively centrifugal development of the spore exine (Cantino et al. 2007). Recent analyses have agreed in placing… Continue reading Monilophyta
Hymenophyllaceae
Belongs within: Leptosporangiatae.Contains: Hymenophyllum, Trichomanes. The Hymenophyllaceae include the filmy ferns, mostly small ferns that get their vernacular name from their thin translucent fronds, with blades generally only one cell thick. Generic subdivisions within this family have varied significantly between authors, but most recent studies agree on a basal division between broad Hymenophyllum and Trichomanes… Continue reading Hymenophyllaceae
Leptosporangiatae
Belongs within: Monilophyta.Contains: Osmundaceae, Gleicheniaceae, Matoniaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, Schizaeaceae, Marsileaceae, Salviniaceae, Polypodiales, Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae. The Leptosporangiatae include most familiar fern species. The clade is primarily characterised by distinctive sporangia (leptosporangia) of which the greater part develops from a single cell, as opposed to the multicellular-derived sporangia (eusporangia) of other ferns and fern-like plants. Known members of… Continue reading Leptosporangiatae
Trichomanes
Belongs within: Hymenophyllaceae. Trichomanes is a genus of filmy ferns bearing cup-shaped or campanulate, sometimes more or less tubular, involucres (Pryer et al. 2001). <==Trichomanes L. 1753A61 [incl. Phlebiophyllum Van Den Bosch 1861 non Phlebophyllum Nees 1832C49] |–T. ankersiiSP09 `–+–T. subg. AchomanesPS01 | | i. s.: T. bicorneW96 | | T. heterophyllum [=Feea heterophylla]W96 |… Continue reading Trichomanes
Hymenophyllum
Belongs within: Hymenophyllaceae.Contains: Hymenophyllum subgenus Mecodium. Hymenophyllum is one of the main groups of filmy ferns in the Hymenophyllaceae. Species are distinguished from other filmy ferns by their bivalved involucres, though molecular phylogenetic analysis suggests a reversion to a more basal tubular form in the nested Microtrichomanes (Pryer et al. 2001). Derived involucres with the… Continue reading Hymenophyllum
Schizaeaceae
Belongs within: Leptosporangiatae. The Schizaeaceae are a family of terrestrial ferns with sporangia borne on specialised distal segments of the fronds (Harden 1990). Characters (Harden 1990): Rhizome usually short-creeping, sometimes long-creeping or erect, the young parts covered with segmented hairs. Fronds varying from dichotomously divided to pinnate, venation circinate; veins mostly free. Sporangia borne on… Continue reading Schizaeaceae