Rediscovery of Angiopteris tonkinensis (Marattiaceae) after 100 years, and its revision

Abstract

The border area between south-eastern Yunnan, China and northern Vietnam is one of the regions with richest biological diversity including that of the fern genus Angiopteris (Marattiaceae). Based on the analysis of morphology and DNA sequences of multiple chloroplast regions (atpB, rbcL, rps4-trnS spacer and trnL-F spacer), we revised Angiopteris tonkinensis (Hayata) J.M.Camus and proposed a new combination Angiopteris tamdaoensis (Hayata) J.Y.Xiang & T.Wang, comb. nov., which was previously regarded as a synonym of A. tonkinensis. We found support for a monophyletic Angiopteris including Protomarattia. This discovery adds two new distribution sites of A. tonkinensis, one in China (Malipo, Yunnan) and one in Vietnam (Quan Ba, Ha Giang). We suggest A. tonkinensis should be categorised as Critically Endangered (CR) species according to the criteria of IUCN.