Once more unto the breach, dear friends: Resolving the origins and relationships of the Pellaea wrightiana hybrid complex

Premise The taxonomic status of Wright's cliff brake fern, Pellaea wrightiana, has been in dispute ever since it was first described by Hooker in 1858. Previously published evidence suggested that this taxon may represent a polyploid complex rather than a single discrete species, a hypothesis tested here using a multifaceted analytical approach. Methods Data derived from cytogenetics, spore analyses, leaf morphometrics, enzyme electrophoresis, and phylogenetic analyses of plastid and nuclear DNA sequences are used to elucidate the origin, relationships, and taxonomic circumscription of P. wrightiana. Results Plants traditionally assigned to this taxon represent three distinct polyploids. The most widespread, P. wrightiana, is a fertile allotetraploid that arose through hybridization between two divergent diploid species, P. truncata and P. ternifolia. Sterile triploids commonly identified as P. wrightiana, were found to be backcross hybrids between this fertile tetraploid and diploid P. truncata. Relatively common across Arizona and New Mexico, they are here assigned to P. xwagneri hyb. nov. In addition, occasional sterile tetraploid plants assigned to P. wrightiana are shown here to be hybrids between the fertile allotetraploid and the tetraploid P. ternifolia subsp. arizonica. These tetraploid hybrids originated independently in two regions of parental sympatry (southern Arizona and west Texas) and are here assigned to P. xgooddingii hyb. nov. Conclusions Weaving together data from a diversity of taxonomic approaches, we show that plants identified as P. wrightiana represent three morphologically distinguishable polyploids that have arisen through repeated hybridization events involving the divergent sexual taxa P. ternifolia and P. truncata.

Automated summary

In this study, using a combination of taxonomic approaches, we demonstrate that plants identified as P. wrightiana represent three morphologically distinguishable polyploids that have arisen through repeated hybridization events involving the divergent sexual taxa P. ternifolia and P. truncata.