A revised family–level classification for eupolypod II ferns (Polypodiidae: Polypodiales)

Abstract

We present a family–level classification for the eupolypod II clade of leptosporangiate ferns, one of the two major lineages within the Eupolypods, and one of the few parts of the fern tree of life where family–level relationships were not well understood at the time of publication of the 2006 fern classification by Smith & al. Comprising over 2500 species, the composition and particularly the relationships among the major clades of this group have historically been contentious and defied phylogenetic resolution until very recently. Our classification reflects the most current available data, largely derived from published molecular phylogenetic studies. In comparison with the five–family (Aspleniaceae, Blechnaceae, Onocleaceae, Thelypteridaceae, Woodsiaceae) treatment of Smith & al., we recognize 10 families within the eupolypod II clade. Of these, Aspleniaceae, Thelypteridaceae, Blechnaceae, and Onocleaceae have the same composition as treated by Smith & al. Woodsia–ceae, which Smith & al. acknowledged as possibly non–monophyletic in their treatment, is circumscribed here to include only Woodsia and its segregates; the other “woodsioid” taxa are divided among Athyriaceae, Cystopteridaceae, Diplaziopsidaceae, Rhachidosoraceae, and Hemidictyaceae. We provide circumscriptions for each family, which summarize their morphological, geographical, and ecological characters, as well as a dichotomous key to the eupolypod II families. Three of these families— Diplaziopsidaceae, Hemidictyaceae, and Rhachidosoraceae—were described in the past year based on molecular phylogenetic analyses; we provide here their first morphological treatment.

A review of symbiotic fungal endophytes in lycophytes and ferns – a global phylogenetic and ecological perspective

“…Fig. 2 Diagram of the phylogeny of tracheophytes, families of lycophytes (1-3) and ferns (monilophytes, 4-48) shown in detail (after Smith et al 2006;Rothfels et al 2012;Knie et al 2015) arranged in the same sequence as in Table 2. Some formal and commonly recognized informal groups are boxed: 1) lycophytes; 2) eusporangiate ferns; 3) basal leptosporangiate ferns; 4) water ferns; 5) tree fern alliance; 6) dennstaedtioid ferns; 7) Pteridaceae; 8) Eupolypods II; 9) Eupolypods I.…”

“…The species were sorted into families following currently accepted classifications (Smith et al 2006, amended with Christenhusz et al 2011and Rothfels et al 2012; but see Christenhusz and Chase 2014), then grouped according to their phylogenetic position Pryer 2007, 2009;Knie et al 2015) and numbered consecutively. The Polypodiaceae were split into grammitid and non-grammitid ferns (Schneider et al 2004b) to open the possibility to examine these ecologically distinct groups separately.…”

Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN): a community contributed taxonomic checklist of all vascular plants of Canada, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Greenland

“…All taxa are linked to a classification: Chase and Reveal (2009) for the higher classification, Christenhusz et al (2011a) for lycophytes, Smith et al (2006) for monilophytes (modified in Rothfells et al 2012), Christenhusz et al (2011b) for the gymnosperms, and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009) for flowering plants. At the generic level and below, the Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1993+) is the main source of classification, unless taxonomic literature more recent than the volume published for a given taxon provides a taxonomy more reflective of current data.…”

Spore morphology of the north Asian members of Cystopteridaceae

“…The family status was accepted by Christenhusz et al (2011) who included four genera, Acystopteris Nakai, Cystoathyrium Ching, Cystopteris and Gymnocarpium, and 30 species in the family. Recent phylogenetic studies based on a three-locus plastid dataset (Rothfels et al 2012(Rothfels et al , 2013 have further clarified the circumscription of the family recognising now approximately 38 species in four genera, three species in Acystopteris, a single in Cystoathyrium, seven in Gymnocarpium (incl. Currania Copel.…”