Sticherus bifidus (Willd.) Ching (1940: 282)

Mertensia bifida Willdenow (1804: 168) . Gleichenia bifida (Willd.) Sprengel (1827: 27) . Dicranopteris bifida (Willd.) Maxon (1909a: 60).

Type: — VENEZUELA. Distrito Federal: Caracas, Bredemeyer s.n. (holotype B-W -19468!) .

Mertensia pubescens Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willdenow (1810: 73) . Gleichenia pubescens (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Kunth (1815: 29) . Dicranopteris pubescens (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Conzatti (1939: 129) . Sticherus pubescens (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Nakai (1950: 25) . Type: — VENEZUELA. Sucre: Cumaná, Santa Cruz, Humboldt & Bonpland s.n. (holotype B!, Willd. 19467).

Distribution and ecology: —Widespread in mountains of Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and central and southeastern Brazil. Locally abundant in montane forests, clearings, and along roadsides, often forming large, pure colonies but also mixed within other shrubby vegetation, at 150–800 m on the Caribbean Islands, and 325–2300 m elsewhere.

Notes: — Sticherus bifidus may be the most commonly misapplied name in the genus. It has been used for almost any specimen with a scaly indument on the abaxial segment surfaces in most herbaria, based on the loose definitions of Tryon & Stolze (1989) and Moran (1995). In Østergaard’s & Øllgaard’s (2001) treatment of Sticherus for Ecuador, they noted that “ S. bifidus ” comprised several distinct species and described S. aurantiacus and S. brevitomentosus as new species. We further treat Sticherus ferrugineus, S. fulvus, S. decurrens, and S. ovatus as separate species, so that our concept of S. bifidus is narrower than that of previous workers. These species form a group of closely related taxa that probably involves interspecific hybridization. In fact, the variability of S. bifidus s. str. suggests that it may itself be of hybrid origin. This hypothesis needs corroboration by cytotaxonomic and/or molecular studies.