Taxonomic relevance of the gametophytic generation in a strictly rupicolous fern group: Asplenium seelosii s.l.

The systematics of the Asplenium seelosii complex has been debated for a long time. This complex includes strictly rupicolous plants that live on limestone cliffs mainly in the mountains of south-west Europe: the Alps, the Pyrenees, and several mountain ranges of the eastern Iberian Peninsula. The disjunct distribution of its populations and several morphological characters, i.e. leaf indumentum and the structure of the perispore, have been used to distinguish two species and up to four subspecies. The goal of this study was to determine whether the characters of the gametophytic generation and young sporophytes can contribute to the recognition of the proposed taxa. The analysis of all of these characters together differentiated two groups that correspond to the established species, A. seelosii and A. celtibericum , but not enough differences were found to separate the subspecies in each of them.  © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2006, 151 , 375–386.