Sticherus pruinosus (Mart.) Ching (1940: 284)

Mertensia pruinosa Martius (1834: 109) . Gleichenia pruinosa (Mart.) Mettenius (1863: 49) . Dicranopteris pruinosa (Mart.) Maxon (1922a: 29) .

Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais. Freyreiss s.n. (holotype, M, photo S) .

Mertensia pennigera Martius (1834: t.59, f.1). Gleichenia pennigera (Mart.) Moore (1862: 381) . Sticherus penniger (Mart.) Copeland (1947: 27) . Dicranopteris pennigera (Mart.) Maxon (1922a: 48) . Type:— BRAZIL. Minas Gerais: Serra de San Geraldo. Martius s.n. (holotype M).

Mertensia angusta Klotzsch ex Sturm (1859: 225) . Gleichenia revoluta Kunth var. angusta (Klotzsch ex J.W.Sturm) Christ (1908: 48) . Gleichenia angusta (Klotzsch ex J.W.Sturm) Sehnem (1959: 542) . Gleichenia angusta (Klotzsch ex J.W.Sturm) Lellinger (1984: 57) hom. illeg. Type:— BRAZIL. Sellow s.n. (holotype not located, isotype US).

Gleichenia longipes (Fée) Christ (in Schwacke 1900: 690). Mertensia longipes Fée (1873: 87, t. 105, f.2). Type:— BRAZIL. Serra do Pico, Glaziou 5235 (holotype P).

Distribution and ecology:— Mountains in eastern Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Commonly found (especially in Brazil) in open habitats in humid forests at (100?–) 700–2450 m.

Notes:— The name Sticherus penniger has previously been applied to a common species we call S. lanosus, but our study has convinced us that the type of S. penniger is the same species as S. pruinosus . Sturm (1840) and Sehnem (1970) treated S. penniger as distinct from S. pruinosus, but in our view the characters they used for distinguishing these two species are not consistent; it seems best to combine these under a single name. Sticherus pruinosus and S. penniger were published simultaneously, and to avoid confusion, we propose to use S. pruinosus as the name for this taxon.