Zygophlebia L.E.Bishop, Amer. Fern J.

Smith, Alan R., Kessler, Michael, León, Blanca, Almeida, Thaís Elias, Jiménez-Pérez, Iván & Lehnert, Marcus, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XL. Polypodiaceae, Phytotaxa 354 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Zygophlebia L.E.Bishop, Amer. Fern J. 79(3): 107. 1989.

Zygophlebia is characterized by swollen phyllopodia, areolate veins, laminae lacking hydathodes, brown paraphyses that often form a dense, sticky mass in dried specimens, and non-clathrate, shiny, ciliate or glandular-papillose rhizome scales ( Bishop 1989b). It most closely resembles Ceradenia , which differs by having free veins and whitish to tan paraphyses in the sori. Unfortunately, due to the dense covering of rhizome scales and the thickness of the leaves, the phyllopodia and the areolate venation of Zygophlebia are often difficult to see. The leaves of Zygophlebia often have a characteristic habit, with the petioles growing nearly horizontally from the branch or tree trunk on which the plant is epiphytic, and the blade sharply bent so that the apex is pendulous. The genus comprises 16 species, including seven in the Neotropics ( Bishop 1989b) and nine in Africa and Madagascar ( Parris 2002). Labiak & Prado (2005a) treated the Brazilian species. No comprehensive phylogenetic study has been published on this group, so the precise relationships of the American to the African species are a mystery. However, a recent phylogenetic analysis including eight African/ Madagascan species and two from the Neotropics suggests that Zygophlebia is not monophyletic and that Enterosora , in part, is nested within it ( Bauret et al. 2017).