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Phylogenetic relationships of two Cuban spleenworts with unusual morphology: Asplenium (Schaffneria) nigripes and Asplenium pumilum (Aspleniaceae, leptosporangiate ferns)

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Abstract

The infrageneric classification of Asplenium, the most species-rich genus of ferns, is notoriously difficult as a result of extensive morphological homoplasy combined with exceptional morphological disparity. Besides a core Asplenium, 29 satellite genera have been described, but most of them have not been widely accepted. In recent years, molecular phylogenetic studies found most of these satellite genera to be nested in Asplenium, but several morphologically distinct taxa have not yet been included in such studies. One of these elements is the monospecific neotropical genus Schaffneria which is characterized by undivided suborbicular blades, lack of a costa, black stipes, netted veins and single or paired sori. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic inference based on the chloroplast DNA markers rbcL, rps4, rps4-trnS and trnL-trnF indicated a position of Schaffneria nigripes within Asplenium. We thus propose to treat Schaffneria as a synonym of Asplenium and adopt the name Asplenium nigripes. With the current sampling, Asplenium (Schaffneria) nigripes is placed sister to A. pumilum, the only species of Asplenium with whitish catenate hairs on its leaves. Despite considerable morphological differences, both species resemble each other in several features including filiform-lanceolate, mostly entire, brown-blackish rhizome scales with a dark-sclerotic center and some marginal projections, a striate, hairy epidermis, echinolophate spore ornamentation with slim microechinate folds forming small lacunae, and Aspidium-type gametophytes.

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Acknowledgments

A German Academic Exchange Service scholarship (DAAD, 2013/16, 57076385) to J. L. is gratefully acknowledged. Financial support from the International Association of Plant Taxonomists to J. L. and from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund to L. R. enabled field work in Cuba. We are grateful to Ariel Rodríguez and Julio León for their support during fieldwork and the curators and directors of the herbaria BM, HAC, HAJB, M and MABC for access to specimens. We thank Miguel Vences for kindly providing access to the laboratory and computer facilities of the Zoological Institute of the Technical University of Braunschweig and the late Siwert Nilsson for providing access to the SEM facilities of the Palynological Laboratory of the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Systematic Botany and Mycology, Geobiocenter, University of Munich (LMU), Menzinger Str. 67, 80638, Munich, Germany

    Josmaily Lóriga, Ledis Regalado & Jochen Heinrichs

  2. Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática, Carretera Varona 11835 e/ Oriente y Lindero, La Habana 19, 11900, Calabazar, Boyeros, La Habana, Cuba

    Ledis Regalado

  3. Departamento de Biología Vegetal I, Ciudad Universitaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Carmen Prada

  4. Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Harald Schneider

  5. Department of Life Science, Natural History Museum, London, SW75BD, UK

    Harald Schneider

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  1. Josmaily Lóriga
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Correspondence to Josmaily Lóriga.

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Lóriga, J., Regalado, L., Prada, C. et al. Phylogenetic relationships of two Cuban spleenworts with unusual morphology: Asplenium (Schaffneria) nigripes and Asplenium pumilum (Aspleniaceae, leptosporangiate ferns). Plant Syst Evol 303, 165–176 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1359-6

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