Blechnum | |
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Blechnum occidentale in cultivation at Lotusland, Montecito, California | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Division: | Polypodiophyta |
Class: | Polypodiopsida |
Order: | Polypodiales |
Suborder: | Aspleniineae |
Family: | Blechnaceae |
Subfamily: | Blechnoideae |
Genus: | Blechnum L. |
Type species | |
Blechnum occidentale | |
Species | |
Blechnum, known as hard fern, is a genus of ferns in the family Blechnaceae, subfamily Blechnoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I).[1] Two very different circumscriptions of the genus are used by different authors. In the PPG I system, based on Gasper et al. (2016),[2] Blechnum is one of 18 genera in the subfamily Blechnoideae, and has about 30 species.[1] Other sources use a very broadly defined Blechnum s.l., including accepting only two other genera in the subfamily. The genus then has about 250 species.[3] In the PPG I circumscription, the genus is mostly neotropical, with a few southern African species.