RT Journal Article
T1 Morphological and molecular evidence reject conspecificity of Malagasy and Mascarene Parablechnum (Polypodiopsida, Blechnaceae)
A1 Molino De Miguel, Sonia
A1 Lafuente, Irene
A1 Rouhan, Germinal
A1 Medina Bujalance, Rafael
AB Under the current treatment of the Blechnaceae, only one species of the fern genus Parablechnum is recognised in the western Indian Ocean, often referred to as P. marginatum. Two varieties are currently recognised within it: a type variety present in the Mascarene Islands of Réunion and Mauritius and P. marginatum var. humbertii in Madagascar. Recent molecular evidence suggested that these two varieties are not closely related, questioning their conspecific status. To collect further evidence to support a taxonomic decision, we performed a morphological study based on 57 herbarium specimens comparing traits from general morphology, cross section of the fertile pinnae, sporangia and spores. As a result, Malagasy specimens can be distinguished morphologically from the Mascarene ones by pinna apex and pinna section, the presence of sporangiasters and spore ornamentation. Additionally, spore size analyses resulted in statistically significant differences between both varieties. Our results, aligned with the available phylogenetic data, support that these two taxa should be recognised as separate species and, hence, we propose the necessary new combination and provide full descriptions.
PB Pensoft Publishers
SN 1314-2011
YR 2022
FD 2022-11
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126203
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/126203
LA eng
NO Molino S, Lafuente I, Rouhan G, Medina R. Morphological and molecular evidence reject conspecificity of Malagasy and Mascarene Parablechnum (Polypodiopsida, Blechnaceae). PK 2022;214:47–60. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.214.95125.
NO FundingWe are grateful to the Synthesys+ programme for the grant awarded to SM to visit the P herbarium. SM also received support from a Santander-UCM pre-doctoral contract (CT27/18). This work was also funded by the research grants PID2021-127118NA-I00 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and PR44/21-29930 of the Santander-UCM research programme.
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO Banco Santander
DS Docta Complutense
RD 21 mar 2026