''Tricholepidium'' is a genus of

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except ...

s in the family

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

, subfamily Microsoroideae, according to the

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

classification of 2016 (PPG I).

Taxonomy

''Tricholepidium'' was first described by Ren-Chang Ching in 1978. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study in 2019 suggested that ''Tricholepidium'' was one of a group of closely related genera in the subfamily Microsoroideae, a group the authors termed "''Lepisorus''

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 c ...

". Its species were embedded in a clade in which none of the genera appeared to be

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

Species

The

classification of 2016 (PPG I) separates the monotypic genus '' Lepidomicrosorium'' from ''Tricholepidium''. , neither the ''Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World'' nor ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants ...

'' accepted the separation, and so placed ''Lepidomicrosorium subhastatum'' in ''Tricholepidium'' (as ''Tricholepidium buergerianum'') along with four other species: *'' Tricholepidium normale'' (Don) Ching *'' Tricholepidium subhemionitideum'' (Christ) Fraser-Jenk. *'' Tricholepidium superficiale'' (Blume) Fraser-Jenk. *'' Tricholepidium venosum'' Ching

References

Polypodiaceae Fern genera {{Polypodiaceae-stub