Leptopteris

Leptopteris Temporal range: Early Cretaceous–Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
L. fraseri, New South Wales
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Polypodiophyta
Class:	Polypodiopsida
Order:	Osmundales
Family:	Osmundaceae
Genus:	Leptopteris C.Presl
Type species
Leptopteris fraseri (Hook. & Grev.) C.Presl

The Leptopteris is a small genus of ferns native to the New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. They are similar to ferns in the related genus Todea , and were originally included in that genus. However, the very thin fronds of Leptopteris differ from the thick leathery fronds of Todea, and the genera are considered distinct. ^[1] A probable extinct species, Leptopteris estipularis is known from the Early Cretaceous of India. ^[2]

Species

There are seven living species and one naturally-occurring interspecific hybrid. ^[3]

• Leptopteris alpina (Baker) C.Chr. – New Guinea and Seram
• † Leptopteris estipularis (Sharma, Bohra & Singh) Bomfleur, Grimm & McLoughlin
• Leptopteris fraseri (Hook. & Grev.) C.Presl – eastern New South Wales and northeastern Queensland
• Leptopteris hymenophylloides (A.Rich.) C.Presl – New Zealand and the Chatham Islands
• Leptopteris × intermedia (B.S.Williams ex T.Moore) Gower (L. hymenophylloides × L. superba) – New Zealand
• Leptopteris laxa Copeland – Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands
• † Leptopteris minuta Romanovskaja
• Leptopteris moorei (Baker) Christ – Lord Howe Island
• Leptopteris superba (Colenso) C.Presl – New Zealand
• Leptopteris wilkesiana (Brack.) Gower – Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Samoan Islands, and Vanuatu

Phylogeny

Phylogeny of Leptopteris ^{[4] [5]}

	L. fraseri (Hooker & Grev.) Presl (Crepe fern, Australia) L. superba (Colenso) Presl (Prince of Wales feather) L. hymenophylloides (Richard) Presl (Single crepe fern) L. wilkesiana (Brack.) Christ [6]

References

1. PPG I (2016). "A community-derived classification for extant lycophytes and ferns". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 54 (6): 563–603. doi: 10.1111/jse.12229 . S2CID   39980610.
2. Bomfleur, Benjamin; Grimm, Guido W.; McLoughlin, Stephen (2017-07-11). "The fossil Osmundales (Royal Ferns)—a phylogenetic network analysis, revised taxonomy, and evolutionary classification of anatomically preserved trunks and rhizomes". PeerJ. 5: e3433. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3433 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   5508817 . PMID   28713650.
3. Leptopteris C.Presl. Plants of the World Online . Retrieved 21 January 2024.
4. Nitta, Joel H.; Schuettpelz, Eric; Ramírez-Barahona, Santiago; Iwasaki, Wataru; et al. (2022). "An Open and Continuously Updated Fern Tree of Life". Frontiers in Plant Science. 13: 909768. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.909768 . PMC   9449725 . PMID   36092417.
5. "Tree viewer: interactive visualization of FTOL". FTOL v1.5.0 [GenBank release 256]. 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
6. "Leptopteris fraseri". Zipcodezoo.