Palhinhaea Franco & Carv., Bol. Soc. Brot.

Øllgaard, Benjamin, Kessler, Michael & Smith, Alan R., 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. II. Lycopodiaceae, Phytotaxa 334 (3), pp. 255-294 : 263

Palhinhaea Franco & Carv., Bol. Soc. Brot. , sér. 2, 41: 24. 1967

= Lycopodium sect. Campylostachys K.Müller, Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 19(24): 163. 1861.

= Lycopodiella sect. Campylostachys (K.Müller) B.Øllg., Opera Bot. 92: 175. 1987.

Palhinhaea is sister to Lateristachys Holub from Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Philippines ( Wikström & Kenrick 2000, 2001, Field et al. 2016). It has a pantropical distribution, with about 20 species in the Neotropics (6 in Bolivia, 2 recently described; Øllgaard 2014) and several additional ones (uncertain number) in the Paleotropics. It is characterized by sporophytes with trailing to arching or looping (rarely creeping), indeterminate shoots that root with usually long intervals and occasionally branch in the horizontal plane, giving off flabellate horizontal branchlet systems. These usually have one main aerial erect branch arising from the dorsal side of every loop; the main aerial branch bears a series of subdecussate, spreading to hanging, flabellate branchlet systems, which in turn may terminate in sessile, nodding to pendulous strobili. Leaves and stem surfaces often have short, unicellular or pluricellular and branched hairs; the sporangia are subglobular, anisovalvate, and partly enclosed in cavities formed by the strobilar cortex and the coalescent basal membranes of adjacent sporophylls (fig. 3B). The sporangial epidermal cells are unlignified, except for nodular or buttress-like, lignified thickenings on the sidewalls; spores rugate to nearly smooth; n = 104, 108, 110, 136, 156, c.165, 208 ( Øllgaard 1987). The reported diversity of chromosome numbers may reflect both taxonomic diversity and problems of chromosome preparation. The gametophytes are epiterranean and photosynthetic.

Nearly all species are terrestrial (rarely epiphytic) and commonly pioneers on moist disturbed soil. Palhinhaea cernua is pantropical but most other species have narrow distributions. Species diversity is especially high on tropical mountains, and seems higher in this genus than commonly assumed.