Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2020, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (2): 163-176.DOI: 10.11983/CBB19118

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Morphology Characters and Evolution of Ferns Scale Ι: Pteridaceae

Yufeng Gu1,2,3,Dongmei Jin1,Baodong Liu2,Xiling Dai3,Yuehong Yan1,*()   

  1. 1 Shanghai Chenshan Plant Science Research Center, Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201602, China
    2 Key Laboratory of Plant Biology, College of Heilongjiang Province, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China
    3 College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • Received:2019-07-01 Accepted:2019-10-24 Online:2020-03-01 Published:2020-02-12
  • Contact: Yuehong Yan

Abstract: Scales are epidermal appendages on the rhizomes and leaves of many ferns. Features of scales play an important role in classification of ferns. The phylogenetic position and delimitation of Pteridaceae were treated differently by different authors. Here we collected scales of 76 fern species in Pteridaceae, and observed them under a dissecting microscope. By comparing the morphological characters, we found that scales are different among genus and subfamilies. We reconstructed a phylogenetic tree with the plastid rbcL sequence of the species in this study downloaded from GenBank database and reconstruced the ancestral state for two selected characters (margin of the scale and mesh type). The results suggested that homogeneous scale and entire margin were plesiomorphic characters, while non-entire margin and transparent mesh were evolved late in evolutionary process. We also speculated that the formation of transparent or non-transparent mesh may relate to the light intensity in the habitats.

Key words: morphology and anatomy, classification, scales, phylogeny, Pteridaceae