6. Christopteris Copeland in Perkins, Fragm. Fl. Philipp. 188. 1905.
戟蕨属 ji jue shu
Authors: Shugang Lu & Peter H. Hovenkamp
Plants usually epiphytic, sometimes terrestrial, medium-sized. Rhizome long creeping, densely covered with scales; scales dark brown, linear-lanceolate, peltate at base, entire or sparsely toothed at margin, opaque, hairlike at apex. Fronds remote, articulate to rhizome, dimorphic. Sterile fronds trilobate or pinnatifid, lobes broad, entire; veins reticulate with branched included veinlets; lamina leathery, glabrous on both surfaces or scaly on abaxial surface when young, scales ovate, peltate. Fertile fronds strongly contracted, trilobate or pinnatifid; lobes linear-lanceolate. Sori covering whole abaxial surface of fertile fronds, mixed with short, simple or branched paraphyses. Sporangia with long stalks; annulus with ca. 14 hardened cells. Spores ellipsoid, hyaline, shallowly tuberculate on surface. Chromosome number as yet unknown.
Three species: tropical Asia; one species in China.
The genus name is often given as "Christiopteris," but this is not in accordance with the protologue. Fraser-Jenkins (Taxon. Revis. Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes, 45. 2008) includes Christopteris within the following genus, Selliguea. It is maintained by Christenhusz et al. (Phytotaxa 19: 52. 2011).
