Abstract:

The Danxia landform is a unique landscape type with a high level of floral endemism. Herein, we report the fern flora of Danxia landform in Hunan Province. We complete comprehensive surveys of pteridophytes in the Danxia landform areas of Hunan between 2007 and 2010. We report an annotated species checklist in this paper, including 183 species and 66 genera in 31 families. Nine species, including Hypolepis polypodioides, Notholaena hirsuta, Adiantum juxtapositum, Allantodia baishanzuensis, A. succulenta, Asplenium ritoense, Polystichum deltodon var. henryi, P. gymnocarpium, P. simplicipinnum and Ctenitis dingnanensi, are reported as new records to Hunan. The families with more than 10 species include the Dryopteridaceae, Athyriaceae, Polypodiaceae, Thelypteridaceae, Selaginellaceae and Aspleniaceae, and the genera with more than 8 species are Dryopteris, Selaginella, Asplenium, Allantodia and Pteris. This list not only includes calciphilous ferns, but also acidophilous and endemic ferns restricted to the Danxia landform (e.g., A. juxtapositum and P. gymnocarpium). It is hypothesized that the fern flora of the Danxia landform may be an intergradation type between Karst landform and granite landform. Lastly, we provide recommendations for the longterm protection of the floral diversity of the Danxia landform.

Key words: ferns and allies, checklist, inventory, new record, ecological characteristics, conservation