Erythrovariae section Dryopsis (Holttum & Edwards) Li Bing Zhang, 2012

Zhang, Li-Bing, 2012, Reducing the fern genus Dryopsis to Dryopteris and the systematics and nomenclature of Dryopteris subgenus Erythrovariae section Dryopsis (Dryopteridaceae), Phytotaxa 71 (1), pp. 17-27 : 18-19

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.71.1.4
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03BEFB3D-FFE4-AB76-3CCE-4A17FB56FECD
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Erythrovariae section Dryopsis (Holttum & Edwards) Li Bing Zhang
status	stat. nov.

Treatment

Dryopteris View in CoL subgenus Erythrovariae section Dryopsis (Holttum & Edwards) Li Bing Zhang , stat. nov.

Basionym:— Dryopsis Holttum & Edwards (1986: 179) .

Type: Dryopteris apiciflora (Wallich ex Mettenius) Kuntze (1891: 812) .

Terrestrial ferns. Fronds caespitose. Petioles with scales, bullate or flat. Laminae 1–3-pinnate, with bullate or flat scales; pinna rachises or pinnule rachises shallowly to deeply grooved on the upper surface, lacking hairs in the groove but bearing abundant hairs on its margins, the hairs multicellular with a broad thickened base consisting of very short cells; grooves of pinna rachises and pinnule rachises closed near their bases, the short ungrooved part bearing hairs on its upper surface. Sori round; indusia reniform.

Twenty-two species are recognized in this study for Dryopteris sect. Dryopsis and they are mainly distributed in mountainous areas of tropical and subtropical Asia ( Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka). This section is most diverse in the Sino-Himalayan region.

Notably, Holttum & Edwards (1986) recognized 26 species, while Dong & Christenhusz (in press) gave an estimate of 16 species for Dryopsis , and Ching (1938) recognized 14 species for this taxon. The major difference between my current treatment and Dong & Christenhusz’s (in press) lies in how to classify the Dryopteris nidus complex (see below). Field work and personal experience with diversity of Dryopteris and Polystichum Roth (Dryopteridaceae) suggest that there are many more species than estimated on a morphological basis, which we cannot easily distinguish without molecular tools. A molecular analysis with good sampling is therefore desperately needed.

The 22 species recognized here can be distinguished from one another using the following key (cf. Ching 1938, Holttum & Edwards 1986, Wang 1999, Dong & Lu 2001, Dong & Christenhusz in press).