Lomaria Willd., Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. Neuesten Entdeck. Gesammten Naturk.

Smith, Alan R. & Kessler, Michael, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XXXIII. Blechnaceae, Phytotaxa 334 (2), pp. 99-117 : 106

Lomaria Willd., Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. Neuesten Entdeck. Gesammten Naturk. 3(2): 160. 1809.

Lomaria comprises ca. six known austral species, three or four in Australasia ( New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia), two in southern South America, and one in southern Africa. Salient characters include erect rhizomes, often forming small trunks; rhizome scales linear-lanceolate, generally very narrow, brown or bicolored with a well defined black midstripe; blades lanceolate, pinnate, or pinnatisect with usually many pairs of gradually reduced proximal pinnae; distal pinnae usually strongly adnate; rachises scaly; pinna margins entire; veins 1- or 2-forked; said to produce green spores; x = 28 ( L. discolor (G. Forst.) Willd. , L. nuda (Labill.) Willd. , the type), the same base number reported in Parablechnum .

The single Bolivian species, and another from Brazil, are the only American taxa. When described, Blechnum bruneum was thought to be closely related to B. brasiliense (now the sole representative of Neoblechnum ); that observation has proven incorrect. Lomaria is related to a large clade of other predominantly austral genera of Blechnaceae , including Austroblechnum , Oceaniopteris , Lomariocycas , Neoblechnum , and Parablechnum , but precise relationships are still uncertain ( Gasper et al. 2017). All of these genera, except for Parablechnum , usually have many pairs of gradually diminished proximal pinnae.