Pilularia

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Pilularia
Pilularia globulifera - Thome.jpg
Pillwort, Pilularia globulifera
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Order: Salviniales
Family: Marsileaceae
Genus: Pilularia
L.
Type species
Pilularia globulifera
L.
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Calamistrumvon Linné ex Kuntze 1891

Pilularia or pillworts is a genus of unusual ferns of family Marsileaceae distributed in North Temperate regions, Ethiopian mountains, and the southern hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand, and western South America.

Contents

Depending on the taxonomic revisor, the genus contains between 3 and 6 species of small plants with thread-like leaves, and creeping rhizomes. The sporangia are borne in spherical sporocarps ("pills") which form in the axils of leaves. Pilularia minuta from SW Europe is one of the smallest of all ferns.

Phylogeny

Recent work from Pryer Lab [1] accepted four species of Pilularia, with a fifth, P. novae-zealandiae, being conspecific with P. novae-hollandiae. In addition, another species, P. dracomontana, has been described from South Africa. [2]

Phylogeny of Pilularia [3] [4] Other species include:
Pilularia

P. minuta Durieu (least pillwort)

P. novae-hollandiae A.Braun (Austral pillwort)

P. americana A.Braun (American pillwort)

P. globulifera L. (Common pillwort)

References

  1. ↑ Nagalingum, Nathalie S.; et al. (2008). "Assessing phylogenetic relationships in extant heterosporous ferns (Salviniales), with a focus on Pilularia and Salvinia" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 157 (4): 673–685. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2008.00806.x . Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Crouch, N. R. & J. Wesley-Smith. "Pilularia dracomontana, a new species of pillwort from the Kwazulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa" . Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ "Tree viewer: interactive visualization of FTOL". FTOL v1.7.0 (GenBank release 261). 2024. Retrieved 1 May 2025.
  5. ↑ Phytotaxa


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