Gleichenia

• Authority

  Mickel, John T. & Beitel, Joseph M. 1988. Pteridophyte Flora of Oaxaca, Mexico. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 46: 1-580.

• Family

  Gleicheniaceae

• Scientific Name

  Gleichenia

• Description

  Genus Description - Terrestrial; rhizome long-creeping, scaly; fronds branching pseudodichotomously and ending in forking pinnatifid parts, the apex often becoming dormant, the pinnae repeatedly forking or bipinnately divided; accessory pinnae lacking; veins free, generally once-forked, rarely unforked; sporangia 3-6 per sorus; indusium lacking; spores bilateral or tetrahedral-globose.

• Discussion

  Type: Gleichenia polypodioides (Linnaeus) J. E. Smith [=Onoclea polypodioides Linnaeus]. Sticherus Presl, Tent, pterid. 51. 1836. Lectotype (chosen by Christensen, Index filie, liv. 1906): Sticherus laevigatus (Willdenow) Presl [=Mertensia laevigata Willdenow; =S. truncatus (Willdenow) Nakai]. Diplopterygium (Diels) Nakai, Bull. Natl. Sci. Mus. 29: 47. 1950. Gleichenia subg. Mertensia sect. Diplopterygium Diels in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 1(4): 353, f. 188A. 1900. Gleichenia subg. Diplopterygium (Diels) Holttum, Reinwartia 4: 261. 1957. Lectotype (chosen by Christensen, Index filie, liv. 1906): Diplopterygium glaucum (Thunberg ex Houttuyn) Nakai [=Polypodium glaucum Thun-berg ex Houttuyn, = Gleichenia glauca (Thunberg ex Houttuyn) Hooker]. This genus is delimited in various ways, some authors (e.g., A. R. Smith, Copeland, Holttum) ascribing the neotropical material to the genus Sticherus, restricting Gleichenia to only those species having beadlike segments (e.g., G. circinnata Swartz) in the South Pacific. Sticherus is thought to have about 90 species, Gleichenia in the broader sense with 110 species. There are about 25 species in tropical America. The genus is very close to Dicranopteris, the latter distinguished by its veins 2-3-branched, and rhizome hairy rather than scaly. Reference: Maxon, W. R. 1909. Gleicheniaceae. N. Amer, Fl. 16: 53-63.