The Hymenophyllaceae, the filmy ferns and bristle ferns, are a family of two to nine genera and about 650 known species of ferns, with a subcosmopolitan distribution, but generally restricted to very damp places or to locations where they are wetted by spray from waterfalls or springs. A recent fossil find shows that ferns of Hymenophyllaceae have existed since at least the Upper Triassic.
Polyphlebium angustatum is a species of fern in the family Hymenophyllaceae. It is found in South America and on a number of Atlantic islands, including Tristan da Cunha. The genus Polyphlebium is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), but not by other sources. As of October 2019, Plants of the World Online sank the genus into a broadly defined Trichomanes, treating this species as Trichomanes angustatum.
Trichomanes is a genus of ferns in the family Hymenophyllaceae, termed bristle ferns. The circumscription of the genus is disputed. All ferns in the genus are filmy ferns, with leaf tissue typically 2 cells thick. This thinness generally necessitates a permanently humid habitat, and makes the fronds somewhat translucent. Because of this membrane-like frond tissue, the plant is prone to drying out. “Filmy ferns” in the taxa Hymenophyllaceae grow in constantly wet environments. Many are found in cloud forests such as “Choco” in Columbia. There are also members of the taxa that can grow submersed in water.
Didymoglossum melanopus is a species of fern in the family Hymenophyllaceae. It is endemic to Ecuador.
Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum, the kidney fern, is a filmy fern species native to New Zealand. It commonly grows on the forest floor of open native bush. Individual kidney-shaped fronds stand about 5–10 cm tall. In hot weather they shrivel up to conserve moisture, but open up again when the wet returns. This species has very thin fronds which are only four to six cells in thickness. In the Māori language they are also called raurenga.
Vandenboschia speciosa, synonym Trichomanes speciosum, commonly known as the Killarney fern, is a species of fern found widely in Western Europe. It is most abundant in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brittany, Galicia, Canary Islands, Madeira and the Azores, but is also found in other locations including France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. It is a relict endemic European species with a disjunct distribution, having had a much wider distribution before the climate changes of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods.
Crepidomanes is a genus of ferns in the family Hymenophyllaceae. It is mostly distributed through the old world but has one species Crepidomanes intricatum in North America. The genus includes the following taxa according to Ebihara et al. 2006.
Crepidomanes intricatum, synonym Trichomanes intricatum, is known as the weft fern. The genus Crepidomanes is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, but not by some other sources. As of October 2019, Plants of the World Online sank the genus into a broadly defined Trichomanes, treating this species as Trichomanes intricatum.
Didymoglossum is a tropical genus of ferns in the family Hymenophyllaceae. It comprises more than 30 epilithic or low-epiphytic species under two subgenera. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, but not by some other sources which sink it into a broadly defined Trichomanes.
Cephalomanes is a fern genus in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 but not by other sources, which sink it into a broadly defined Trichomanes.
Trichomanes elegans is a fern species in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The name has also been used incorrectly for two different species.
Vandenboschia boschiana, synonym Trichomanes boschianum, the Appalachian bristle fern or Appalachian filmy fern, is a small delicate perennial leptosporangiate fern which forms colonies with long, black creeping rhizomes. The evergreen fronds are bipinnatifid, deeply and irregularly dissected, about 4 to 20 cm long, 1 to 4 cm across with winged stipes 1 to 7 cm long and light green in colour. The common name derives from the leaves which are very thin, only a single cell thick, missing an epidermis and translucent, giving the appearance of a wet film.
Polyphlebium venosum, the veined bristle-fern or bristle filmy fern, is a fern in the family Hymenophyllaceae. It is only found in wet forests, mainly growing as an epiphyte on the shady side of the soft tree fern, Dicksonia antartica. It also grows on logs, trunks of trees and rarely on trunks of Cyathea species or on wet rock-faces. It is found in the wetter parts of Eastern Australia and New Zealand. P. venosum has poor long-distance dispersal compared to other ferns due to its short lived spore. Notable features of Polyphlebium venosum include it being one cell layer thick, 5–15 cm in length, having many branching veins and a trumpet shaped indusium.
Didymoglossum petersii, the dwarf bristle fern, is a species in the family Hymenophyllaceae,. It is one of three filmy ferns native to a significant area of the United States. It is found only in the nine most southeastern states, south of the Kentucky/Virginia - Tennessee/North Carolina dividing line, as well as in Mexico and Guatemala.
Callistopteris is a fern genus in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 but not by some other sources, which sink it into a broadly defined Trichomanes.
Polyphlebium is a fern genus in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 but not by some other sources.
Vandenboschia is a fern genus in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 but not by some other sources.
Abrodictyum is a fern genus in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 but not by some other sources, which sink it into a broadly defined Trichomanes.
Cephalomanes atrovirens is a species of fern in the family Hymenophyllaceae. The genus Cephalomanes is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, but not by some other sources. As of October 2019, Plants of the World Online sank the genus into a broadly defined Trichomanes, while treating the subtaxa of this species as the separate species Trichomanes acrosorum, Trichomanes atrovirens, Trichomanes boryanum and Trichomanes kingii.
Crepidomanes minutum is small fern in the filmy fern family which grows throughout the Pacific. It is commonly referred to as tiny bristle fern. The specific epithet 'minutus' means small in latin, referring to the small fronds
