Lindsaeaceae is a pantropical family of ferns in the order Polypodiales. It contains six or seven genera with about 220 known species,[2] some of which also extend into the more temperate regions of eastern Asia, New Zealand, and South America.[3]
Description
Characteristics include: Rhizomes short to long creeping; rhizomes with nonclathrate scales or uniseriate hairs; blades 1-3 pinnate or more divided; veins usually free; sori marginal or submarginal; indusia open towards margin, sometimes attached at sides, or sori covered by the reflexed segment margin.[4]
Taxonomy
For more than a century, these ferns were considered part of the Davalliaceae. Then starting in the mid-twentieth century they began to be transferred to the Dennstaedtiaceae. Molecular data supported the separation of Lindsaeaceae into its own family, which was proposed in 1970.[3] Lindsaeaceae is considered among the most basal of the families in the order Polypodiales. One hypothesis for the relationships within the order is shown in the following cladogram:[5]
The genus Lonchitis has many morphological characteristics similar to Dennstaedtiaceae, but a few characteristics of the spore are similar to the lindsaeoid genera, and molecular data placed this genus in Lindsaeaceae.[6] It is now placed in the related family Lonchitidaceae.[7]
The extinct genus Proodontosoria from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber of Myanmar has been assigned to the family.[11] Other fossil remains assigned to the family include an indeterminate leaf fragment also from the Burmese amber,[12] as well as a permineralized root from the Albian aged Aspen Shale of Wyoming.[13]
Other genera that have been placed in the Lindsaeaceae are:[7]
^Smith, A. R., K. M. Pryer, et al. (2006). "A classification for extant ferns." Taxon 55(3): 705-731
^ abPPG I (2016). "A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 54 (6): 563–603. doi:10.1111/jse.12229. S2CID39980610.
^Wolf, P. G. (1997). "Evaluation of atpB Nucleotide Sequences for Phylogenetic Studies of Ferns and Other Pteridophytes." American Journal of Botany 84(10): 1429-1440