Dicranopteris Genus

Dicranopteris is a genus of ferns in the family Gleicheniaceae (order Gleicheniales), first described by Bernhardi in 1805 (published in Schrader's Neues Journal für die Botanik). It is placed within Polypodiopsida, the true ferns. English-language sources give the informal name "forkedfern," reflecting the genus's most distinctive trait: fronds with a rachis that branches dichotomously — repeatedly forking into two — often several times, with a dormant bud protected by stiff hairs and stipule-like bracts sitting in each fork. Normal, deeply pectinately-pinnatifid pinnules are produced only at the growing apex, while each dichotomy typically also carries a pair of lateral pinnae. The rhizomes are slender and long-creeping, covered in multicellular hairs, and fronds are distant along the rhizome, standing erect or becoming somewhat scandent (climbing/scrambling). Reproductive structures are small, round, exindusiate sori arranged in one (occasionally up to three) rows along each side of the pinnule costule, each holding 6-18 sessile sporangia; spores are tetrahedral (or sometimes ellipsoid) and smooth, lacking a perispore. Species counts vary by treatment: the Flora of China account recognizes about ten species genus-wide, while English Wikipedia (citing Plants of the World Online) lists roughly 20 described species; the GBIF backbone carries 45 names when synonyms are included. The genus is pantropical to subtropical, with GBIF distribution records spanning the Americas (from Florida and Mexico through the Caribbean and Central America to Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador), tropical Africa (from Guinea and Ghana to Angola, DR Congo and Ethiopia), and a wide swath of Asia and the Pacific (India, China, Southeast Asia, Borneo, Hainan, and islands including Hawaii, Fiji and the Carolines). China alone holds five species, two of them endemic. A recognized synonym for the genus is Hicriopteris C. Presl. Molecular phylogenetic work (e.g. on New Zealand Gleicheniaceae) has been used to help resolve relationships within the family, and a number of described species remain unplaced within the genus's internal phylogeny pending further study.