| Summary: | The arguments and unclear status upon Blechnaceae taxonomic classification
which considered as monophyletic by several authors but showing different
results to others has growing interest to study this family. Blechnaceae from
Peninsular Malaysia which represented by four genera; Blechnum, Woodwardia,
Brainea and Stenochlaena were studied. These ferns were distributed and
collected from three different states namely Pahang, Johor and Selangor. The
taxonomic placement of this ferns at ordinal and familial was categorized
differently among previous taxonomist. This may confound present access and
brought difficulty to identify the plants. Furthermore, molecular data
previously has also resulted with two-differently species relation among
Blechnaceae; (1) monophyletic, and (2) not monophyletic. These findings have
brought intense interest to study ferns of Blechnaceae with objectives to
document the macro morphological characters including rhizome, frond
architecture, venation and scales. Each character was observed and identified
upon similarities and differences with aid of magnification. The sectioned of
stipe and rachis from fresh specimens were done to study vascular bundle
arrangement. Meanwhile, to classify this family using molecular approaches,
chloroplast coding and non-coding regions of rbcL, atpB and trnH-psbA were
amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and the sequences were
analyzed to indicate species relatedness. All data were compiled using NCSS9
Statistical Software and Graphic Analysis and further analyzed using the
Unweighted-Pair Group method. The results of the study showed Blechnaceae is not monophyletic. Blechnum was found to be clustered into two clades, while
Brainea and Woodwardia were treated as the ancestors to the family. Stenochlaena
was found closely related to B. indicum, whereas a new species of Blechnum sp.
was relatively close and much resembled B. orientale. The result obtained from
clustering analysis was supported by the Maximum Parsimony analysis using
the nucleotide sequences from rbcL, atpB and trnH-psbA. RbcL and trnH-psbA
were found as two reliable markers in this study due to its parallel hypothesis in
inferring the species relatedness. However, atpB sequences were too short and
could be unreliable to resolve the species relationship. The classification by
clustering analyses using macro and micro morphological characters were
unparallel with the molecular finding. All species were found as not
monophyletic and but able to be distinguished separately. Each species had
their own characters but some of them shared with overly similarly characters.
However, the data from this study could be use for future references when
conducting research of ferns from Peninsular Malaysia.
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