Pteris epaleata, a new fern species from Australia and New Zealand segregated from P. comans (Pteridaceae)

Introduction Pteris L. is a large genus of 250 species in Pteridaceae subfamily Pteridoideae that occurs on all continents except Antarctica (Zhang et al. 2015; PPG 1 2016).Three subgenera and 15 sections that represent major lineages have been proposed (Zhang and Zhang 2018).The Pteris comans G.Forst.subclade is an easily identifiable lineage within subgenus Campteria, section Tripedipteris (Zhang and Zhang 2018).This group comprises seven species with anastomosing veins from Australia and the Pacific.These are: Pteris comans, putatively widespread through the Pacific and south-east Australia, P. litoralis Rech., from the tropical