Gymnosphaera Explained

Gymnosphaera is a genus of tree ferns in family Cyatheaceae.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally described by Carl Ludwig Blume in 1828.^[1] It was frequently treated by later authors as a synonym of Cyathea or Alsophila.

In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), Gymnosphaera was left as a synonym of Alsophila, as evidence to support its reliable separation was lacking. More recently, Shi-Yong Dong and collaborators proposed the revival and recircumscription of the genus based on additional phylogenetic evidence,^[2] an act subsequently accepted by other tree fern workers.^[3]

Phylogeny

, the following species are accepted in the genus as currently circumscribed by the Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World:

Phylogeny of Gymnosphaera^{[4] [5]}

Other species include:

• Gymnosphaera alticola Tardieu
• Gymnosphaera atropurpurea (Copel.) Copel.
• Gymnosphaera boivinii (Mett. ex Ettingsh.) Tardieu
• Gymnosphaera bonii (Christ) S.Y.Dong
• Gymnosphaera commutata (Mett.) S.Y.Dong
• Gymnosphaera henryi (Baker) S.R.Ghosh
• Gymnosphaera mildbraedii (Brause) S.Y.Dong
• Gymnosphaera nicklesii Tardieu & F.Ballard ex Tardieu
• Gymnosphaera ramispinoides (M.Kato) S.Y.Dong
• Gymnosphaera rubella (Holttum) S.Y.Dong

Notes and References

1. Book: Blume, Carl Ludwig . Carl Ludwig Blume

   . Carl Ludwig Blume . Enumeratio plantarum Javae . 2 . 1828 . 242 .

2. Dong . Shi-Yong . Zuo . Zheng-Yu . On the Recognition of Gymnosphaera As a Distinct Genus in Cyatheaceae . Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden . 103 . 1 . 1–23 . 2018 . 10.3417/2017049. 90852235 .
3. Oriane . Loiseau . Anna . Weigand . Sarah . Noben . Jonathan . Rolland . Daniele . Silvestro . Michael . Kessler . Marcus . Lehnert . Nicolas . Salamin . Slowly but surely: gradual diversification and phenotypic evolution in the hyper-diverse tree fern family Cyatheaceae . Annals of Botany . 125 . 1 . 2020 . 93–103 . 10.1093/aob/mcz145. 31562744 . 6948215 .
4. Nitta . Joel H. . Schuettpelz . Eric . Ramírez-Barahona . Santiago . Iwasaki . Wataru . et al. . 2022 . An Open and Continuously Updated Fern Tree of Life . Frontiers in Plant Science . 13 . 909768. 10.3389/fpls.2022.909768 . 36092417. 9449725. free.
5. Web site: et al. . 2023 . Tree viewer: interactive visualization of FTOL . FTOL v1.5.0 [GenBank release 256] . 17 August 2023.