Mickel, John T. & Smith, Alan R. 2004. The pteridophytes of Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 88: 1-1054.
Polypodiaceae
Genus Description - Epiphytic; rhizomes radially symmetrical, short-creeping, ascending, or erect; rhizome scales usually blackish, clathrate, glabrous or bearing hyaline marginal setulae, attached across the width of scale base; phyllopodia absent; stipes absent or much shorter than the bases, continuous with (not articulate to) the rhizomes; blades shallowly to deeply pinnatisect, some species (the L. myosuroides group) with the fertile distal portion entire or less divided than the sterile proximal portion of the blade, rarely the blades pinnate-pinnatifid (outside Mexico); indument of setae, setulae, or branched hairs, at least along the stipes and rachises, the setae hyaline to reddish, usually with a pale basal cell and forked unequally, the smaller cell oblique, glandular, the larger cell acicular; hydathodes present (viewed adaxially); veins simple, free; sori round or elliptic, often somewhat sunken, ex indusiate, lacking paraphyses; sporangial capsules glabrous, rarely setulose; x =32, 33.
Type: Lellingeria apiculata (Kunze ex Klotzsch) A. R. Sm. & R. C. Moran [Polypodium apiculatum Kunze ex Klotzsch].
Lellingeria comprises about 60 species and is primarily neotropical, but a few species are known from Africa, Madagascar, Hawaii, and the southern Pacific (Smith et al., 1991). The species that occur in the Old World and Hawaii all belong to the L. myosuroides group. Although sampling is inadequate, preliminary molecular results indicate that the genus is monophyletic if several species that bear long tawny hairs are removed (Ranker et al., 2004). These possibly misplaced species may be diminuative members of the Terpsichore cultrata group, and include only L. mitchellae in Mexico, plus another species in southern Central America and two in southern Brazil (Smith et al., 1991). From Ceradenia and Enterosora, Lellingeria differs in having conspicuous hydathodes. Micropolypodium and Terpsichore differ by the presence of long, stout, reddish brown setae on the midribs and blades and the non-clathrate rhizome scales. From Melpomene, Lellingeria differs in the generally setose rhizome scales and the absence of long reddish brown setae. Several species of Lellingeria, in particular the narrow-bladed ones with a single sorus per segment, have often been treated in the genus Xiphopteris. This generic concept, based largely on blade dissection, has now been discredited by both morphological and molecular evidence (Smith et al., 1991; Ranker et al., 2004).