Plants often less than 15 cm [rarely more than 50 cm]. Blade pinnatifid [simple to 1-pinnate or rarely more divided], bristly [or glabrous], glandless [or glandular]; setae dark reddish brown [to transparent]. Veins simple or 1-forked [to pinnately veined] in each segment, free, ending in hydathodes adaxially. Sori round [to oval or elongate], not forming a coenosorus, not sunken; paraphyses absent [or present]. x = 32, 33, 36, 37.

Distribution

Tropical and subtropical, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, Australia.

Discussion

The total number of species is based on acceptance of a relatively broad circumscription. Our sole species belongs to the group (genus or subgenus) formerly called Xiphopteris, a name that is now treated as a synonym of Cochlidium (L. E. Bishop 1978). This group comprises perhaps 30 species and is defined by the following characteristics: stem scales not clathrate, often marginally bristly; veins simple or with a single acroscopic branch in each segment; blades linear, usually pinnatifid or pinnatisect; lack of a marginal black border around blade; one sorus per segment; and hydathodes present. It probably warrants generic status under the name Micropolypodium Hayata, a primarily neotropical genus with representatives in eastern Asia (Malaysia, China, Sikkim, Taiwan, and Japan).

Species ca. 300 or more (1 in the flora).

Selected References

Bishop, L. E. 1978. Revision of the genus Cochlidium (Grammitidaceae). Amer. Fern J. 68: 76--94.

Farrar, D. R. 1967. Gametophytes of four tropical fern genera reproducing independently of their sporophytes in the southern Appalachians. Science 155: 1266--1267.

Lower Taxa

Grammitis nimbata