Trichomanes

Kessler, Michael & Smith, Alan R., 2017, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. X. Hymenophyllaceae, Phytotaxa 328 (3), pp. 201-226 : 219

Trichomanes L., Sp. Pl. 2: 1097. 1753.

= Feea Bory, Dict. Class. Hist. Nat. 6: 446. 1824.

= Davalliopsis Bosch, Verslagen Meded. Afd. Natuurk. Kon. Akad. Wetensch. 11: 323. 1861.

Trichomanes (type T. crispum L.; see Morton 1968; Pichi Sermolli 1981), as circumscribed here, comprises about 60+ species, and is nearly entirely Neotropical, except for a few species in Africa, Madagascar, and islands in the Indian Ocean ( Bauret et al. 2015). Ebihara et al. (2006) divided the genus into four subgenera: subg. Trichomanes , with ca. 35 spp., 11 in Bolivia; subg. Davalliopsis (Bosch) Ebihara & Dubuisson (2 spp., one in Bolivia); subg. Feea (Bory) Hook. (ca. 5 spp., two in Bolivia); and subg. Lacostea (Bosch) C.Chr. (4 spp., two in Bolivia). Species allied to T. crispum (subg. Trichomanes ), seven spp. included below, were revised by Windisch (1992); Lellinger (1994a) treated spp. allied to T. polypodioides , including T. anadromum . The genus has received major attention in recent years from both morphological and molecular standpoints ( Dubuisson 1997a, 1997b, 2007; Dubuisson et al. 2003a).

Characters differentiating the species include plant habit (plants terrestrial or epipetric vs. hemiepiphytic, with rhizomes climbing up trunks); rhizome aspect (long- to short-creeping, suberect, or erect); rhizome thickness; blades monomorphic vs. dimorphic (subg. Feea ); blade dissection (entire to 3-pinnate-pinnatifid or more divided); blade indument, with or without stellate hairs; and sori immersed vs. stalked. Most of the species are 1-pinnate, but a few are much more dissected, to quadripinnatifid ( T. elegans ), and one has entire blades ( T. vittaria ). Trichomanes is sister to a clade comprising the Old World Callistopteris plus four other trichomanoid genera known from Bolivia: Polyphlebium + Didymoglossum + Vandenboschia + Crepidomanes .