Why are there so few species of ferns?

Tom A Ranker; Michael A Sundue

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2015.05.001

Why are there so few species of ferns?

Trends Plant Sci. 2015 Jul;20(7):402-3. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.05.001. Epub 2015 May 15.

Authors

Tom A Ranker¹, Michael A Sundue²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Botany, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. Electronic address: tom.ranker@gmail.com.
² Department of Botany, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA; The Pringle Herbarium, Department of Plant Biology, The University of Vermont, 27 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05405, USA.

PMID: 25986968
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2015.05.001

Abstract

A recent study has documented a natural hybridization event between two fern lineages that last shared a common ancestor about 60 million years ago. This is one of the deepest hybridization events ever described and has important implications for plant speciation theory.

Keywords: deep hybridization; ferns; gene flow; speciation.

MeSH terms

Ferns / classification*
Hybridization, Genetic
Species Specificity*