Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 742 No. 3: 24 Feb. 2026
Type: Article
Published: 2026-02-24
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.742.3.8
Page range: 250-254
Abstract views: 34
PDF downloaded: 6

Phylogenetic analyses supporting Araiostegiella faberiana to be a distinct species from A. perdurans (Davalliaceae)

Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Plant Conservation and Utilization in Southern China, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Plant Conservation and Utilization in Southern China, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China; University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China
Davallia morphology new combination nomenclature plastid region Pteridophytes

Abstract

The fern species Araiostegia faberiana has long been recognized as a distinct species in Chinese floras. However, it has recently proposed to be conspecific with A. perdurans. Upon examining herbarium specimens, we found that the type specimen’s morphology of A. faberiana (with opposite pinnules) conflicts with its established application to plants with catadromous pinnules, and that the type materials of A. perdurans comprise fronds of two morphological forms: catadromous-pinnuled and opposite-pinnuled. In this study we analyzed the plastid region atpB-accD to test whether phylogenetic divergence exists between these two morphological forms. Our analysis resolved specimens with catadromous pinnules as sister to those with opposite pinnules, supporting that A. faberiana is a distinct species from A. perdurans and A. hookeri. Therefore, the name A. faberiana should be conserved in nomenclature by designating a type specimen. The new combination Davallia faberiana is established for A. faberiana transferred to Davallia.

References

  1. Beddome, R.H. (1865) The Ferns of British India. Gantz Brothers, Madras, 345 pp.
  2. Cavanilles, A.J. (1802) Descripcion de las Plantas que D. Antonio Josef Cavanilles demostro en las Lecciones del Ano 1801. Royal Publishing House, Madrid, 284 pp.
  3. Cheng, X. (2004) Davalliaceae. In: Institutum Botanicum Kunmingense Academiae Sinicae (Ed.) Flora Yunnanica, vol. 21. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 245–271.
  4. Ching, R.-C. (1966) Three new fern genera. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica 11: 17–30.
  5. Ching, R.-C. & Wu, S.-K. (1983) Pteridophyta. In: Wu, C.-Y. (Ed.) Flora Xizangica, vol. 1. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 1–355.
  6. Ching, R.-C. (1959) Davalliaceae. In: Chien, S.-S. & Chun, W.-Y. (Eds.) Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, vol. 2. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 280–319, 374–378.
  7. Christ, H. (1898) Fougères de Mengtze, Yunnan Méridional (Chine). Bulletin de l’Herbier Boissier 6: 956–973.
  8. Christensen, C. (1924) Plantae Sinenses III, Pteridophyta. Acta Horti Gothob 1: 41–110.
  9. Copeland, E.B. (1908) New or interesting Philippine ferns III. Philippine Journal of Science, C 3: 31–37.
  10. Copeland, E.B. (1927) Davallodes and related genera. Philippine Journal of Science 34: 239–327.
  11. Copeland, E.B. (1931) Miscellaneous oriental pteridophytes. University of California Publications in Botany 12: 283–418.
  12. Fraser-Jenkins, C.R. (2008) Taxonomic Revision of Three Hundred Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes with a Revised Census-list. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, 685 pp.
  13. Fraser-Jenkins, C.R., Gandhi, K.N., Kholia, B.S. & Kandel, D.R. (2021) An annotated checklist of Indian pteridophytes, part-3. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh, Dehra Dun, 405 pp.
  14. Hassler, M. (1994–2025) World Plants, Synonymic Checklist and Distribution of the World Flora, version 25.10. Available from: http://www.worldplants.de (accessed 31 October 2025)
  15. Hayata, B. (1911) Materials for a flora of Formosa. Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo 30: 1–471.
  16. Huang, J.-K., Li, X.-J., Zhou, L.-X., Zuo, Z.-Y. & Dong, S.-Y. (2025) Dryopteris pycnolepis, a new fern species from northern Vietnam, with miscellaneous notes on Dryopteris sect. Splendentes (Dryopteridaceae). PhytoKeys 263: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.263.163351
  17. Jin, J.-J., Yu, W.-B., Yang, J.-B., Song, Y., dePamphilis, C.W., Yi, T.-S. & Li, D.-Z. (2020) GetOrganelle: a fast and versatile toolkit for accurate de novo assembly of organelle genomes. Genome Biology 21: 241. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02154-5
  18. Katoh, K. & Standley, D.M. (2013) MAFFT Multiple Sequence Alignment Software, version 7: Improvements in Performance and Usability. Molecular Biology and Evolution 30: 772–780. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst010
  19. Kato, M. & Tsutsumi, C. (2008) Generic classification of Davalliaceae. Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 59: 1–14.
  20. Kearse, M., Moir, R., Wilson, A., Stones-Havas, S., Cheung, M., Sturrock, S., Buxton, S., Cooper, A., Markowitz, S., Duran, C., Thierer, T., Ashton, B., Meintjes, P. & Drummond, A. (2012) Geneious Basic: An integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics 28: 1647–1649. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199
  21. Kramer, K.U. (1990) Davalliaceae. In: Kramer, K.U. & Green, P.S. (Eds.) The families and genera of vascular plants, vol. 1, Pteridophytes and gymnosperms. Springer, Berlin, pp. 74–80.
  22. Lefort, V., Longueville, J.-E. & Gascuel, O. (2017) SMS: Smart Model Selection in PhyML. Molecular Biology and Evolution 34: 2422–2424. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx149
  23. Ma, X.-D., Wang, A.-H., Wang, F.-G., He, C.-M., Liu, D.-M., Gerstberge, P. & Xing, F.-W. (2018) A revised classification of Chinese Davalliaceae based on new evidence from molecular phylogenetics and morphological characters. PLoS ONE 13 (11): e0206345. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206345
  24. Porebski, S., Bailey, L.G. & Baum, B.R. (1997) Modification of a CTAB DNA extraction protocol for plants containing high polysaccharide and polyphenol components. Plant Molecular Biology Reporter 15: 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02772108
  25. PPG I. (2016) A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 54: 563–603. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12229
  26. Smith, J.E. (1793) Tentamen botanicum de filicum generibus dorsiferarum. Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Turin 5: 401–422.
  27. Turland, N.J. (2019) The Code Decoded: A user's guide to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (2nd edition). Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, 196 pp.
  28. Tsutsumi, C. & Kato, M. (2005) Molecular phylogenetic study on Davalliaceae. Fern Gazette 17: 147–162.
  29. Tsutsumi, C., Chen, C.-W., Larsson, A., Hirayama, Y. & Kato, M. (2016) Phylogeny and classification of Davalliaceae on the basis of chloroplast and nuclear markers. Taxon 65: 1236–1248. https://doi.org/10.12705/656.2
  30. Wu, S.-H. (1999) Davalliaceae. In: Wu, S.-H. (Ed.) Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae, vol. 6. Science Press, Beijing, pp. 161–199.
  31. Xing, F.-W., Wang, F.-G. & Nooteboom, H.P. (2013) Davalliaceae. In: Wu, Z.-Y., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D.-Y. (Eds.) Flora of China, vol. 2–3, (Pteridophytes). Science Press, Beijing; Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, pp. 749–757.

How to Cite

Dong, S.-Y. & Huang, J.-K. (2026) Phylogenetic analyses supporting Araiostegiella faberiana to be a distinct species from A. perdurans (Davalliaceae). Phytotaxa 742 (3): 250–254. https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.742.3.8