''Lellingeria'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s in the family

Polypodiaceae Polypodiaceae is a Family (biology), family of ferns. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), the family includes around 65 genus, genera and an estimated 1,650 species and is placed in the order Polypodiales, suborder ...

, subfamily

Grammitidoideae Grammitidoideae is a subfamily of the fern family Polypodiaceae, whose members are informally known as grammitids. It comprises a clade of about 750 species. They are distributed over higher elevations in both the Old World, Old and New World. T ...

, according to the

Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group The Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish on the classification of pteridophytes ( lycophytes and ferns) that reflects knowledge about plant relationships discove ...

classification of 2016 (PPG I). About 50–70

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of ''Lellingeria'' are known.Barbara S. Parris. 2009. "New genera of Malesian Grammitidaceae". ''Blumea'' 54(1-3):217-219. They are

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

areas of

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, and

Pacific Islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...

. None are known in cultivation. ''Lellingeria'' was named for the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

pteridologist #REDIRECTFern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having spec ...

David Lellinger.Alan R. Smith, Robbin C. Moran, and L. Earl Bishop. 1991. "''Lellingeria'', a new genus of Grammitidaceae". ''American Fern Journal'' 81(3):76-88.

Description

Mostly

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

Rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...

radially symmetrical Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, the face of a human being has a plane of symme ...

dorsiventral A dorsiventral (Lat. ''dorsum'', "the back", ''venter'', "the belly") organ is one that has two surfaces differing from each other in appearance and structure, as an ordinary leaf. This term has also been used as a synonym for dorsoventral organs, ...

, with

clathrate A clathrate is a chemical substance consisting of a lattice (group), lattice that traps or contains molecules. The word ''clathrate'' is derived from the Latin language, Latin (), meaning 'with bars, Crystal structure, latticed'. Most clathrate ...

, usually blackish

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

that are attached across their entire base.

Petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

absent or much shorter than the

lamina Lamina may refer to: People * Saa Emerson Lamina, Sierra Leonean politician * Tamba Lamina, Sierra Leonean politician and diplomat Science and technology * Planar lamina, a two-dimensional planar closed surface with mass and density, in mathem ...

. Sterile portion of

frond A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the lar ...

shallowly to deeply

pinnately Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

divided. Fertile portion

entire Entire may refer to: * Entire function, a function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane * Entire (animal), an indication that an animal is not neutered * Entire (botany) This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions o ...

to deeply pinnately divided. (A few species with fronds pinnate-pinnatifid). Veins simple, free (not

anastomosing An anastomosis (, : anastomoses) is a connection or opening between two things (especially cavities or passages) that are normally diverging or branching, such as between blood vessels, leaf veins, or streams. Such a connection may be normal (suc ...

Hydathode A hydathode is a type of pore, commonly found in vascular plants, that secretes water through pores in the epidermis or leaf margin, typically at the tip of a marginal tooth or serration. Hydathodes occur in the leaves of submerged aquatic plant ...

s present. Sori round or elliptic, often slightly sunken, without

paraphyses Paraphyses are erect sterile filament-like support structures occurring among the reproductive apparatuses of fungi, ferns, bryophytes and some thallophytes. The singular form of the word is paraphysis. In certain fungi, they are part of the f ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Lellingeria'' was erected in 1991. At that time, it consisted of 52 species, three newly described, and 49 transferred from the artificial (

unnatural Unnatural or The Unnatural(s) may refer to: Film * ''Alraune'' (1952 film), also known as ''Unnatural'', a West German science fiction horror film *'' The Unnaturals'', a 1969 Italian-West German gothic horror film directed and written by Antonio ...

) genus ''

Grammitis ''Grammitis'' (dwarf polypody) is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Grammitidoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). It had formerly been placed in the family Grammitidacea ...

''. In 2004, a

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

study of

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

s of two

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

s showed that ''Lellingeria'', as defined in 1991, was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

.Tom A. Ranker, Alan R. Smith, Barbara S. Parris, Jennifer M.O. Geiger, Christopher H. Haufler, Shannon C.K. Straub, and Harald Schneider. 2004. "Phylogeny and evolution of grammitid ferns (Grammitidaceae): a case of rampant morphological homoplasy". ''Taxon'' 53(2):415-428. This was confirmed six years later. In 2010, four species were removed from ''Lellingeria'' and combined with one species from the defunct genus '' Xiphopteris'' to form the new genus '' Leucotrichum''.Paulo H. Labiak, Germinal Rouhan, and Michael A. Sundue. 2010. "Phylogeny and taxonomy of ''Leucotrichum'' (Polypodiaceae): A new genus of grammitid ferns from the Neotropics". ''Taxon'' 59(3):911-921. The remaining species of ''Lellingeria'' form a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genus that is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

to the genus ''

Melpomene Melpomene (; ) is the Muse of tragedy in Greek mythology. She is described as the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne (and therefore of power and memory) along with the other Muses, and she is often portrayed with a tragic theatrical mask. Etymolog ...

''. When ''Lellingeria'' was established in 1991, thirty-five of its species were assigned to four species groups. This infra-generic classification did not hold up, because one of these groups had to be separated as ''Leucotrichum'', and because another two of these groups were not truly distinct, but intermixed. ''Lellingeria'', as currently

circumscribed In geometry, a circumscribed circle for a set of points is a circle passing through each of them. Such a circle is said to ''circumscribe'' the points or a polygon formed from them; such a polygon is said to be ''inscribed'' in the circle. * Circum ...

consists of two groups, one with about 20 species, and another with about 50. The smaller group is easily distinguished by morphological

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

, but the larger group is more

diverse Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce * Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers ...

. These two groups have not been formally named as

subgenera In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

sections Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

within ''Lellingeria''. ''Lellingeria'' can be distinguished from ''Melpomene'' by the lack of

seta In biology, setae (; seta ; ) are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Depending partly on their form and function, protostome setae may be called macrotrichia, chaetae, ...

e, the presence of hairs on the rhizome, the sparse covering of very short hair on the upper surface of the

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this case the ''rachi ...

midrib A primary vein, also known as the midrib, is the main vascular structure running through the center of a leaf. The primary vein is crucial for the leaf’s efficiency in photosynthesis and overall health, as it ensures the proper flow of material ...

, and by the sori, which are slightly sunken into the lamina. When ''Lellingeria'' was first described in 1991, it was thought to always have a radially symmetrical rhizome, but it has since been learned that some of the species that belong in ''Lellingeria'' have a

rhizome. The unequally forked hairs are almost always present, but they are not a

synapomorphy In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel Phenotypic trait, character or character state that has evolution, evolved from its ancestral form (or Plesiomorphy and symplesiomorphy, plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy sh ...

for ''Lellingeria''.

Species

, the ''Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World'' accepted the following fifty-two species: *'' Lellingeria affinis'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria amplisora'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria antillensis'' (Proctor) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria apiculata'' (Kunze ex Klotzsch) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria barbensis'' (Lellinger) A.R.Sm. er R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria bishopii'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria brasiliensis'' (Rosenst.) Labiak *'' Lellingeria brenesii'' A.Rojas *'' Lellingeria brevistipes'' (Mett. ex Kuhn) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria calolepis'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria cantarensis'' B.K.Black & Sundue *'' Lellingeria ciliolepis'' (C.Chr.) A.R.Sm. *'' Lellingeria depressa'' (C.Chr.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria dissimulans'' (Maxon) A.R.Sm. *'' Lellingeria epiphytica'' (Copel.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria flagellipinnata'' M.Kessler & A.R.Sm. *'' Lellingeria flexibilis'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria hombersleyi'' (Maxon) A.R.Sm. *'' Lellingeria humilis'' (Mett.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria isidrensis'' (Maxon ex Copel.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria itatimensis'' (C.Chr.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria jimenezii'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria kaieteura'' (Jenman) Labiak *'' Lellingeria labiakii'' Sundue *'' Lellingeria laxifolia'' A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria longeattenuata'' D.M.Forero & J.Murillo *'' Lellingeria longifolia'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria major'' (Copel.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria melanotrichia'' (Baker) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria micula'' (Lellinger) Labiak *'' Lellingeria militaris'' (Maxon) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria moranii'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria oreophila'' (Maxon) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria paramicola'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria pendula'' (Sw.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria pendulina'' A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria phlegmaria'' (J.Sm.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria pinnata'' A.Rojas *'' Lellingeria pseudocapillaris'' (Rosenst.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria pseudotenuicula'' Labiak *''

Lellingeria simacensis ''Lellingeria'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Grammitidoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). About 50–70 species of ''Lellingeria'' are known.Barbara S. Parris. ...

'' (Rosenst.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria sinuosa'' (A.R.Sm.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria smithii'' Labiak *'' Lellingeria subimpressa'' (Copel.) Labiak *'' Lellingeria subsessilis'' (Baker) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria suprasculpta'' (Christ) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *''

Lellingeria suspensa ''Lellingeria'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Grammitidoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). About 50–70 species of ''Lellingeria'' are known.Barbara S. Parris. ...

'' (L.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria tamandarei'' (Rosenst.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria tenuicula'' (Fée) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria tmesipteris'' (Copel.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria tunguraguae'' (Rosenst.) A.R.Sm. & R.C.Moran *'' Lellingeria vargasiana'' A.Rojas

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6520927 Polypodiaceae Fern genera