The scope of the site is to determine the morphologically recognizable species in Lophosoria (Dicksoniaceae), assign the correct names from a pool of more than two dozen synonmyn, and elucidate their relationship to each other. The genus is especially interesting in its biogeography. Fossil data (mainly the genus' unmistakeable spores) indicate a Paleotropical origin of the genus, in present-day Australia. During the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, the genus was able to expand its range across the Antarctic continent to southern South America. Here it was able to persist and further diversify while it became extinct in Antractica and Australia.
Key to the species of Lophosoria
Edited by Marcus Lehnert on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 18:411. Fronds erect, all pinnae ascending (45–60º); ultimate segments obtuse; plants usually growing as clusters of multiple crowns [petioles with brown outer hairs and white undercoat of varying thickness, leaf axes with cleanly abraded indument of reddish brown contorted hairs; young fronds bright green]. … L. revoluta
