Aleuritopteris Fée, Mém. Foug., Gen. Filic.

Kessler, Michael, Smith, Alan R. & Prado, Jefferson, 2017, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XXVII. Pteridaceae, Phytotaxa 332 (3), pp. 201-250 : 205

Aleuritopteris Fée, Mém. Foug., Gen. Filic. 5: 153–154. 1850–1852 [1852].

Aleuritopteris comprises ca. 40 species (PPG I 2016), but a more precise estimate must await a more informed circumscription of the genus, which will include species heretofore included in Asian Leptolepidium K.H.Shing and Sinopteris C.Chr. & Ching. The genus is predominately Old World, and especially from eastern Asia, but a few species occur in the Neotropics and subtropics. Sakai (1984a, b, c) recognized several species from arid areas of Mexico.

Aleuritopteris is often included in Cheilanthes , but differs (in Bolivia) by glabrous, white-farinose abaxial blade surfaces. It is also similar to Notholaena , but differs by the highly modified and reflexed segment margins. Phylogenetically, relationships and exact circumscription of Aleuritopteris are not well understood, but the genus, as historically construed and with the addition of several Asian segregates mentioned above, appears to be related to the largely southern hemisphere genus Cheilanthes (Schuettpelz et al. 2007, Yesilyurt et al. 2015).