Global diversification of the common moonwort ferns (Botrychium lunaria group, Ophioglossaceae) was mainly driven by Pleistocene climatic shifts.

Background And Aims: The cosmopolitan Botrychium lunaria group belong to the most species rich genus of the family Ophioglossaceae and was considered to consist of two species until molecular studies in North America and northern Europe led to the recognition of multiple new taxa. Recently, additional genetic lineages were found scattered in Europe, emphasizing our poor understanding of the global diversity of the B. lunaria group, while the processes involved in the diversification of the group remain unexplored.

Photographic analysis of field-monitored fern gametophyte development and response to environmental stress.

Premise: Ferns differ from seed plants in possessing a life cycle that includes a small, free-living, seemingly vulnerable gametophyte stage in which sexual reproduction occurs. Most research on the response of fern gametophytes to environmental stress has been conducted on gametophytes grown in culture or harvested from natural habitats and subsequently manipulated and tested in laboratory experiments. We present a fixed-distance photographic methodology for monitoring longevity of gametophytes and their response to environmental stress in natural, undisturbed habitats over their life spans.

Methodologies for soil extraction and conservation analysis of ferns and lycophytes with belowground gametophytes.

Premise: Studies of fern and lycophyte gametophyte biology in natural settings can be challenging, but such analyses are critical to understanding the dispersal, ecology, and conservation of these species. It is especially challenging to study species whose gametophytes and early sporophyte stages develop belowground, as is the case for species of the Ophioglossaceae, Psilotaceae, some species of the Schizeaceae (), and some species of the Lycopodiaceae. To study these taxa, gametophytes and young sporophytes must be extracted from the soil.

Rapid allopolyploid radiation of moonwort ferns (Botrychium; Ophioglossaceae) revealed by PacBio sequencing of homologous and homeologous nuclear regions.

Polyploidy is a major speciation process in vascular plants, and is postulated to be particularly important in shaping the diversity of extant ferns. However, limitations in the availability of bi-parental markers for ferns have greatly limited phylogenetic investigation of polyploidy in this group. With a large number of allopolyploid species, the genus Botrychium is a classic example in ferns where recurrent polyploidy is postulated to have driven frequent speciation events.

Observations on bipolar disjunctions of moonwort ferns (Botrychium, Ophioglossaceae).

Peter Raven, in 1963, included two fern taxa of the genus Botrychium in his list of plant species exhibiting American amphitropical bipolar disjunctions. He attributed the southern hemisphere occurrences to post-Pleistocene long-distance dispersal from counterparts in the northern hemisphere, probably assisted by annual bird migrations between the disjunct areas. Using genetic evidence gathered through worldwide analyses of phylogenetic relationship in Botrychium, we now review and reconsider Raven's conclusions.

Cryptic speciation in allotetraploids: Lessons from the Botrychium matricariifolium complex.

Premise Of The Study: Cryptic species are a challenge for botanists and taxonomists. To improve species delineation in the genus Botrychium (Ophioglossaceae), which includes multiple instances of allotetraploid speciation, we examined a cryptic species complex using genetics and morphology.

Methods: We sampled species in the B.

trnL-F is a powerful marker for DNA identification of field vittarioid gametophytes (Pteridaceae).

Background And Aims: The gametophyte phase of ferns plays an important role in habitat selection, dispersal, adaptation and evolution. However, ecological studies on fern gametophytes have been impeded due to the difficulty of species identification of free-living gametophytes. DNA barcoding provides an alternative approach to identifying fern gametophytes but is rarely applied to field studies.

The sporophyte-less filmy fern of eastern North America Trichomanes intricatum (Hymenophyllaceae) has the chloroplast genome of an Asian species.

Trichomanes intricatum, the sporophyte-less filmy fern of the eastern United States, has been considered to be a species whose sporophyte generation has become extinct or is possibly still present among the many species of Trichomanes s.l. in the new world tropics but unable to grow in a temperate climate.

Genetic variation in populations of the morphologically and ecologically variable fern Stegnogramma pozoi subsp. mollissima (Thelypteridaceae) in Japan.

In Japanese Stegnogramma pozoi subsp. mollissima (Fisher ex Kunze) K. Iwats.