TAXON 68 (2) • April 2019: 185–198 Molino & al. • Multi-character analysis of Struthiopteris SYSTEMATICS AND PHYLOGENY A multi-character analysis of Struthiopteris leads to the rescue of Spicantopsis (Blechnaceae, Polypodiopsida) Sonia Molino,1 Jose María Gabriel y Galán,1 Emily B. Sessa2 & Pawel Wasowicz3 1 Unit of Botany, Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, Universidad Complutense, Avenida Jose Antonio Nováis, 12, 28040 Madrid, Spain 2 Department of Biology, University of Florida, Box 118525, Gainesville, Florida 32611, U.S.A. 3 Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Borgir vid Nordurslod, 600 Akureyri, Iceland Address for correspondence: Jose María Gabriel y Galán,
[email protected] DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12036 Abstract The family Blechnaceae is a moderately sized leptosporangiate fern lineage, with 24 genera and around 250 species. Struthiopteris accommodates small to medium-sized, dimorphic, pinnate species. It is composed of six northern species: S. spicant is distributed in western parts of Europe and North America; S. fallax is endemic to Iceland; S. niponica, S. amabilis and S. castanea are endemic to Japan, and S. hancockii occurs in Japan and Taiwan. Due to the lack of a global review and to its highly interesting geographical distribution, this genus merits further study to clarify its taxonomy, species relationships, and distributional pattern. The present study aims to achieve the following goals: (a) identify and describe morphological characters supporting the taxonomy of Struthiopteris; (b) reconstruct a complete phylogeny for the genus; (c) study the biogeographical history of Struthiopteris at a global scale. The morphological study involved the observation of characters ranging from rhizome scales to spores over 164 individuals.