Microsoroideae is the third largest of the six subfamilies of Polypodiaceae, containing over 180 species. These ferns are widely distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World and Oceania. We documented the spore ornamentation and integrated these data into the latest phylogenetic hypotheses, including a sampling of 100 taxa representing each of 17 major lineages of microsoroid ferns. This enabled us to reconstruct the ancestral states of the spore morphology. The results show verrucate ornamentation as an ancestral state for Goniophlebieae and Lecanoptereae, globular for Microsoreae, and rugulate surface for Lepisoreae. In addition, spore ornamentation can be used to distinguish certain clades of the microsoroid ferns. Among all five tribes, Lecanoptereae show most diversity in spore surface ornamentation.

Microsoroideae 是水龙骨科六个亚科中的第三大亚科，包含 180 多种。这些蕨类植物广泛分布于旧世界和大洋洲的热带和亚热带地区。我们记录了孢子装饰，并将这些数据整合到最新的系统发育假设中，其中包括代表微囊类蕨类植物 17 个主要谱系的 100 个类群的样本。这使我们能够重建孢子形态的祖先状态。结果表明，疣状装饰是 Goniophlebieae 和 Lecanoptereae 的祖先状态，球形装饰是 Microsoreae 的祖先状态，而皱纹表面是 Lepisoreae 的祖先状态。此外，孢子装饰可用于区分小管蕨类植物的某些分支。在所有五个部落中，Lecanoptereae 在孢子表面装饰方面表现出最大的多样性。