Woodsiaceae

Cliff fern
Woodsia ilvensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pteridophyta
Class:	Polypodiopsida
Order:	Polypodiales
(unranked):	Eupolypods II
Family:	Woodsiaceae Herter
Genera
Woodsia Cheilanthopsis Hymenocystis

The Woodsiaceae or cliff ferns is a family of ferns in the Eupolypods II clade of the order Polypodiales, in the class Polypodiopsida.^[1] It contains the three genera Cheilanthopsis, Hymenocystis, and Woodsia. However, the first two are very similar to Woodsia and may be merged into it at some point.^[2]

Phylogenic relationships

Woodsiaceae formerly included the members of the families Athyriaceae and Diplaziopsidaceae, but analysis has consistently shown that they should be treated as separate families.^[2] The following diagram for the eupolypods II, based on Lehtonen, 2011,^[3] and Rothfels & al., 2012,^[4] shows a likely phylogenic relationship between the Woodsiaceae and the other families of the eupolypods II clade.

eupolypods II	Cystopteridaceae Rhachidosoraceae Diplaziopsidaceae Aspleniaceae Hemidictyaceae Thelypteridaceae Woodsiaceae Onocleaceae Blechnaceae Athyriaceae

References

1. Alan R. Smith, Kathleen M. Pryer, Eric Schuettpelz, Petra Korall, Harald Schneider & Paul G. Wolf (2006). "A classification for extant ferns" (PDF). Taxon 55 (3): 705–731. doi:10.2307/25065646.
2. Maarten J. M. Christenhusz, Xian-Chun Zhang & Harald Schneider (2011). "A linear sequence of extant families and genera of lycophytes and ferns" (PDF). Phytotaxa 19: 7–54.
3. Samuli Lehtonen (2011). "Towards Resolving the Complete Fern Tree of Life" (PDF). PLoS ONE 6 (10): e24851. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024851. PMC 3192703. PMID 22022365.
4. Carl J. Rothfels, Anders Larsson, Li-Yaung Kuo, Petra Korall, Wen- Liang Chiou, Kathleen M. Pryer (2012). "Overcoming Deep Roots, Fast Rates, and Short Internodes to Resolve the Ancient Rapid Radiation of Eupolypod II Ferns". Systematic Biology 61 (1): 70. doi:10.1093/sysbio/sys001. PMID 22223449.