Weft fern | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Division: | Polypodiophyta |
Class: | Polypodiopsida |
Order: | Hymenophyllales |
Family: | Hymenophyllaceae |
Genus: | Crepidomanes |
Species: | C. intricatum
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Binomial name | |
Crepidomanes intricatum (Farrar) Ebihara & Weakley[1]
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Synonyms[1] | |
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Crepidomanes intricatum, synonym Trichomanes intricatum,[1] is known as the weft fern.[2] The genus Crepidomanes is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I),[3] but not by some other sources. As of October 2019[update], Plants of the World Online sank the genus into a broadly defined Trichomanes, treating this species as Trichomanes intricatum.[4]
This is an unusual filmy fern that grows in rock shelters and crevices in the eastern United States, with the southern extent in Georgia and extending north into New England.[5] It is known only from its filamentous gametophytes and completely lacks the sporophyte generation.[6] It is a rare plant that is protected in several US states.[6]
Recent study has found a relationship between this species and an Asian filmy-fern species, Crepidomanes schmidianum. Both share the same chloroplast genome, although the relationship between the two species is uncertain.[7] In 2011, Atsushi Ebihara and Alan S. Weakley transferred Trichomanes intricatum to Crepidomanes intricatum based on the chloroplast molecular sequence data.[8]