Desmophlebium Mynssen, A.Vasco, Sylvestre, R.C.Moran & Rouhan

Kessler, Michael & Smith, Alan R., 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XXIX. Aspleniaceae, Phytotaxa 344 (3), pp. 259-280 : 259-280

Desmophlebium Mynssen, A.Vasco, Sylvestre, R.C.Moran & Rouhan , Taxon 65(1): 27. 2016.

This genus was recently described to accommodate two species formerly placed in Diplazium , but shown by molecular studies of a single species to be sister to the clade of Asplenium , Hemidictyum , and Hymenasplenium ( Mynssen et al. 2016) . The widespread Desmophlebium lechleri is present in Bolivia, and D. longisorum (Baker) C. Chr. is known only from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Morphologically, Desmophlebium shares characters of the vascular bundles in the petiole, lamina architecture, and diplazioid sori with Diplazium , but differs by the combination of thick 1- pinnate laminae, entire pinnae, decurrent distal pinnae, conform lamina apices (i.e., the terminal segment is similar to the lateral pinnae), and the presence of a submarginal connecting vein. Relative to Asplenium and Hymenasplenium , Desmophlebium has erect or decumbent rhizomes and non-clathrate rhizome scales (versus erect or creeping rhizomes and clathrate rhizome scales).