Aspleniineae is a suborder of

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 order

Polypodiales The Order (biology), order Polypodiales encompasses the major lineages of polypod ferns, which comprise more than 80% of today's fern species. They are found in many parts of the world including Tropics, tropical, semitropical and Temperate clima ...

. It is equivalent to the

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

eupolypods II in earlier systems; it is also treated as a single very broadly defined family

Aspleniaceae The Aspleniaceae (spleenworts) are a family of ferns, included in the order Polypodiales. The composition and classification of the family have been subject to considerable changes. In particular, there is a narrow circumscription, Aspleniaceae ...

. The suborder generally corresponds with the order Blechnales as described by J. L. Reveal in 1993. Aspleniineae includes some important ferns, including ''

Onoclea sensibilis ''Onoclea sensibilis'', the sensitive fern, also known as the bead fern, is a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial plant, perennial fern. The name comes from its sensitivity to frost, the fronds dying quickly when first touc ...

'', the sensitive fern, which grows as a virtual weed throughout much of its temperate

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n range, and ferns of the genus ''

Thelypteris ''Thelypteris'' (maiden ferns) is a genus of ferns in the subfamily Thelypteridoideae, family Thelypteridaceae, order Polypodiales. Two radically different circumscriptions of the genus are in use . In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classifi ...

'', a genus that has shown remarkable speciation. It also includes one of the more common

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

ferns, '' Matteuccia struthiopteris'', the ostrich fern.

Taxonomy

In 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), the group is treated as the suborder Aspleniinae, and divided into 11 families. Alternatively, it may be treated as a single, very broadly circumscribed family Aspleniaceae ''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

'', which is then divided into subfamilies. The relationship between the two approaches is shown in the table below.

Phylogenic relationships

The following diagram shows a likely phylogenic relationship between the families of Aspleniineae (as eupolypods II), based on Lehtonen (2011), and Rothfels & al. (2012).

References

{{Fern classification Polypodiales