We combined classical taxonomic and DNA barcoding approaches to catalog the ferns and lycophytes of the Nectandra Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica, and find that Nectandra has remarkably high biodiversity for its size.
To better understand the evolution of epiphytic growth in ferns, we investigated functional traits of fern sporophytes and gametophytes across a broad phylogenetic sampling on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia. Surprisingly, while epiphytes showed convergence in small size, they showed greater functional diversity at the community level relative to terrestrial ferns.
The past quarter-century has witnessed a revolution in our understanding of the phylogenetics, systematics, and ecology of pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes), particularly due to the rapid accumulation of plastid sequence data and a renewed …
The fern and lycophyte flora of Japan comprising 721 native taxa (including subspecies and varieties) plus 371 interspecific hybrids was reassessed using a nearly comprehensively sampled distribution map at 10 km resolution vouchered by 216,687 …
Despite their importance to the fern life cycle, little is known about the ecology of fern gametophytes due to their cryptic morphology and small size. This study documents growth dynamics over five years in a population of *Pleurosoriopsis makinoi* …
A new hybrid microsoroid fern, *Microsorum* × *tohieaense* (*Microsorum commutatum* × *Microsorum membranifolium*) from Moorea, French Polynesia is described based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic analysis. *Microsorum* × *tohieaense* can be …
*Nepenthes* is a genus of carnivorous pitcher plants with high intra- and interspecific morphological diversity. Many species produce dimorphic pitchers, and the relative production rate of the two morphs varies interspecifically. Despite their …
The Old World fern genus *Pyrrosia* (Polypodiaceae) offers a rare system in ferns to study morphological evolution because almost all species of this genus are well studied for their morphology, anatomy, and spore features, and various hypotheses …
Ferns are the only major lineage of vascular plants that have nutritionally independent sporophyte (diploid) and gametophyte (haploid) life stages. However, the implications of this unique life cycle for fern community ecology have rarely been considered. To compare patterns of community structure between fern sporophytes and gametophytes, we conducted a survey of the ferns of the islands of Moorea and Tahiti (French Polynesia).
__*Premise of Research.*__ Ferns (monilophytes) and lycophytes are unique among land plants in having two independent life stages: the gametophyte generation, which is generally small, cordiform, and short-lived, senescing after fertilization, and …