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Thelypteridaceae

 
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Thelypteridaceae
 
 
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Thelypteridaceae is a family of about 900 species of fern
Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta, also known as Filicophyta....
s.

The ferns are terrestrial
Terrestrial plant

A terrestrial plant is one that grows on land. Other types of plants are aquatic ecosystem , epiphytic and lithophytes ....
, with the exception of a few which are lithophyte
Lithophyte

Lithophytes are a type of plant that grows in or on Rock . Lithophytes feed off moss, nutrients in rain water, litter, and even their own dead tissue....
s (grow on rocks). The bulk of the species are tropical, although there are a number of temperate species.

These ferns typically have creeping rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
s. The frond
Frond

A frond is a large leaf with many divisions to it, and the term is typically used for the leaves of Arecaceaes, ferns or cycads. A frond is the leaf- like structure of a fern or alga....
s are simply pinnate
Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna for "feather"....
 to pinnate-pinnatifid. There is either no frond dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. Examples include color , size, and the presence or absence of parts of the body used in courtship displays or fights, such as ornamental feathers, horns, antlers or tusks....
 or only mild dimorphism, either open venation or very simple anastomosing.






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Thelypteridaceae is a family of about 900 species of fern
Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 20,000 species of plants classified in the phylum or division Pteridophyta, also known as Filicophyta....
s.

The ferns are terrestrial
Terrestrial plant

A terrestrial plant is one that grows on land. Other types of plants are aquatic ecosystem , epiphytic and lithophytes ....
, with the exception of a few which are lithophyte
Lithophyte

Lithophytes are a type of plant that grows in or on Rock . Lithophytes feed off moss, nutrients in rain water, litter, and even their own dead tissue....
s (grow on rocks). The bulk of the species are tropical, although there are a number of temperate species.

These ferns typically have creeping rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
s. The frond
Frond

A frond is a large leaf with many divisions to it, and the term is typically used for the leaves of Arecaceaes, ferns or cycads. A frond is the leaf- like structure of a fern or alga....
s are simply pinnate
Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna for "feather"....
 to pinnate-pinnatifid. There is either no frond dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. Examples include color , size, and the presence or absence of parts of the body used in courtship displays or fights, such as ornamental feathers, horns, antlers or tusks....
 or only mild dimorphism, either open venation or very simple anastomosing. The sori
Sorus

A sorus is a cluster of sporangium.In fungi and lichens, the sorus is surrounded by an external layer. In some red algae it may take the form of a depression into the thallus....
 are mostly reniform in shape and have indusia, except for the Phegopteris group.

Classification

At one time, all thelypterioid ferns were included in the genus Dryopteris
Dryopteris

Dryopteris is a genus of about 250 species of ferns with distribution in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in eastern Asia....
 because of the sorus shape. However, there are a great many differences between the groups, and these plants are now segregated in their own family.

Some researchers include the entire family Thelypteridaceae
Thelypteridaceae

Thelypteridaceae is a family of about 900 species of ferns.The ferns are Terrestrial plant, with the exception of a few which are lithophytes ....
 in the genus Thelypteris
Thelypteris

Thelypteris is a genus of ferns in the family Thelypteridaceae. If the genus is defined fairly broadly, it contains 875 species, many of which are extremely similar to one another, and is found nearly worldwide....
; others divide the family into as many as 30 genera. An intermediate position is to place the bulk in Thelypteris (which can then be divided into subgenera and sections corresponding to the genera of other authors) but to separate out Phegopteris
Phegopteris

Phegopteris is a genus of ferns known collectively as the Beech ferns. Traditionally this genus included only the first three species listed....
 and Macrothelypteris. Another choice is to divide the family into a half a dozen or so genera.

This family includes several complexes of species that are difficult to distinguish, and seem to represent a remarkable evolutionary radiation.

Recent genetic
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
 evidence shows that the family is clearly monophyletic
Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
. The same genetic studies show that the traditional genus Phegopteris is, in fact, a clearly segregate group that diverges at the very base of the family tree
Family tree

A family tree is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms....
. In fact, this particular clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
 also includes the genera Pseudophegopteris and Macrothelypteris, which are here included in the larger genus Phegopteris
Phegopteris

Phegopteris is a genus of ferns known collectively as the Beech ferns. Traditionally this genus included only the first three species listed....
. Similarly, Coryphopteris is included here in the genus Metathelypteris, Parathelypteris is included in Amauropelta, and a large group of genera are included in Cyclosorus.