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Lomaria

Blechnum
Blechnum chilense 1.jpg
Blechnum chilense
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida /
 Pteridopsida (disputed)
Order: Polypodiales
(unranked): Eupolypods II
Family: Blechnaceae
Genus: Blechnum
L. 1753
Type species
Blechnum occidentale
L. 1753
Species

See text

Synonyms

Lomaria Willd.


See text

Lomaria Willd.

Blechnum (hard fern) is a genus of between 150–220 species of ferns with a cosmopolitan distribution, in the family Blechnaceae in the eupolypods II clade of the order Polypodiales. By far the greatest species diversity is in tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere, with only a few species reaching cool temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere (notably B. penna-marina, south to Cape Horn, Chile, the southernmost fern in the world) and Northern Hemisphere (notably B. spicant, north to Iceland and northern Norway).

Most are herbaceous plants, but a few species (e.g. B. buchtienii and B. schomburgkii in Ecuador) are tree ferns with stems up to 3 m tall. Blechnum varies from most ferns in having a separation of sterile (photosynthetic) and fertile (reproductive) fronds in the same plant.

The circumscription of the genus has varied since it was established by Linnaeus in 1753. Some authors have put many of its species in a segregate genus Lomaria. DNA taxonomy indicates that the genus Doodia is embedded in Blechnum.


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