A new species of fern Suiyang ear fern was found in Guizhou

Guiyang, October 13 Reporters Lu Shen and Chen Guanhe learned from Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine that the university's Chinese medicine resource team discovered a new species of fern Polystichum suiyangense
.
The plant was found
in a karst limestone mountain valley during a medicinal plant survey in Suiyang County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province in June 2018.
After more than three years of continuous field and introduction observations, combined with molecular biology research, it was finally determined to be a new plant
species of the Ear Fern group of the genus Ear Fern of the family Scaly fern.
The results have recently been published
in the international journal Phytotaxa, Vol.
567, Issue 1.

With more than 500 species worldwide, ear ferns are widely distributed around the world, making it the largest genus of scaly ferns, the third largest genus of ferns, and one of
the most difficult groups to classify ferns.
At present, there are 13 species of ear fern in the fine lobed ear fern group (including the newly discovered Suiyang ear fern), of which 9 species are distributed
in Guizhou.

"The distribution area of the ear fern is narrow, the population is very small, and the system is in a special
location.
" Wang Bo, a member of the team and a teacher at the School of Pharmacy of Guizhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the discovery of this new species has important scientific research value
for inferring the origin, evolution, geographical distribution and phylogenetic relationship of ear fern species.
At present, less than 50 individuals
of this species have been found in the vicinity of the Suiyang ear fern only in the vicinity of the spot.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessment methodology, the ear fern is initially assessed as critically endangered
.

It is reported that in the past 20 years, the Chinese medicine resource team of Guizhou University of Chinese Medicine has carried out in-depth research on Guizhou medicinal ferns, and has successively edited and published "Guizhou Medicinal Ferns", "Guizhou Stone Pine and Fern History" (upper and lower volumes), and "Guizhou Chinese Herbal Medicine Resources Illustrated Dictionary" Volume I, establishing the dominant position
of Guizhou fern resources in the country.
The team also built the Guizhou Fern Germplasm Resource Garden, collecting and preserving more than 400 species of
medicinal fern resources.