Dipteris is a genus of about seven species of ferns, native to tropical regions across the world, particularly Asia, with a species in northeastern Queensland in Australia. It is one of two genera in the family Dipteridaceae.
Description
Species of Dipteris grow from creeping rhizomes,[1] and have large stalks to the sporangium and annulus.[2] The rhizomes have bristles (or hairs) and the fronds have uniseriate hairs (having one line or series).[3] All species of Dipteris have spore-capsules that are carried on the lower surface of the broad lobed frond.[4] The fronds can reach up to 50 cm long.[5]
Taxonomy
Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt first published the genus in 1825,[6] by describing Dipteris conjugata Reinw.[7] which is the best known species.[8]
In 1839, R. Brown reduced the genus to a subgenus of Polypodium.[9] In 1901, Konrad Christ published Die Farnkrauter der Erde’t, within which he included the genus Dipteris in the family Polypodiaceae, (a subdivision of the Polypodiacea).[10] It was then later placed into a separate genus,[4][5] Bower (1928), Ching (1940) and Pichi-Sermolli (1958) all having recreated the family Dipteridaceae, then comprising only one genus, Dipteris,[11] due to the differences in sporangium, stomata and gametophte.[3]
The Latin genus name Dipteris refers to an amalgamation of two terms: di meaning two, and pteris Greek word used for ferns generally, meaning wing-like.[12]
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