Chengdu Institute of Biology

News

Events

Polystichum fengshanense, sp. nov. (sect. Haplopolystichum, Dryopteridaceae) from Karst Caves in Guangxi, China based on Morphological, Palynological, and Molecular Evidence

Update time: 01/17/2012 Author:

A new fern species, Polystichum fengshanense, is described and illustrated from nine karst caves in northern Guangxi, China, which is a member of Polystichum sect. Haplopolystichum (Dryopteridaceae).

Prof. ZHANG Libing from CAS Chengdu Institute of Biology have made a phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast trnL-F sequences suggesting that the new species is most closely related to P. cavernicola, P. minutissimum, and P. speluncicola, species described from karst caves in adjacent southern Guizhou.

Researchers proved that P. fengshanense morphologically can be easily distinguished from these three species by having narrow-type microscales on the abaxial laminar surface, sessile pinnae, and sori closer to the midrib.

They also pointed out that palynologically, P. fengshanense has granulate perispore sculpturing, whereas P. cavernicola has verrucate perispore sculpturing and P. speluncicola has cristate perispore sculpturing with numerous spinules. It is considered that Polystichum fengshanense should be critically endangered (CR) based on IUCN red list criteria because of its restricted distribution.

ZHANG’s research got grant supports from Open Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation of Chengdu Institute of Biology Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Geographic Society, U. S. A. and National Natural Science Foundation of China. More details have been published in SYSTEMATIC BOTANY in Dec of 2011.