Reticulate evolution in the Crepidomanes minutum species complex (Hymenophyllaceae)

Abstract

The C. minutum species complex is a reticulate network including multiple diploid lineages and their stabilized hybrid crosses. Additional sampling focused on reproductive mode and ploidy level is needed to delimit diploid species and hybrids.

A well-sampled phylogenetic analysis of the polystichoid ferns (Dryopteridaceae) suggests a complex biogeographical history involving both boreotropical migrations and recent transoceanic dispersals

“…Hybrid speciation has been reported to play an important role in the evolution in ferns (Barrington et al, 1989;Lin et al, 2011;Nitta et al, 2011;Sessa et al, 2012b). In the polystichoid ferns, the impact of reticulate evolution remains however poorly understood.…”

Novitates Bruneienses, 10. Filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae) of Kuala Belalong, Brunei Darussalam

“…The Crepidomanes minutum species complex is a taxonomically complicated group affected by nomenclatural confusion. It has high morphological variability, polyploidy, and frequent occurrence of hybrids which are stabilised by apogamy and polyploidy (Nitta et al, 2011). As the group has not been critically revised yet, we recognise a single polymorphic species, Crepidomanes minutum.…”

New insights into the systematics and evolution of the filmy fern genusCrepidomanes(Hymenophyllaceae) in the Mascarene Archipelago with a focus on dwarf species

“…According to the latest revision of the family (Ebihara et al 2006), we selected 10 species from the Indian Ocean region, which probably belong to the genus, including the Mauritian Trichomanes trinerve (see above). Crepidomanes minutum is considered here as a large species complex of highly morphologically variable populations with a distribution that encompasses the whole distribution of the genus, according to Yoroi and Iwatsuki (1977), Ebihara et al (2006) and recently demonstrated by Nitta, Ebihara and Ito (2011); thus, it includes C. mannii as a synonym of C. minutum and the Afro-Madagascan representative of the section Gonocormus (Bosch) K.Iwats. Until recently, the Afro-Mascarenian C. frappieri was only known in the archipelago by the fragile, old type specimen of the species, which was not suitable for molecular investigations.…”