Abstract
Symphyodon is represented in the Americas by a single species, S. machrisianus (Crum) Buck & Ireland comb. nov. Although Symphyodon is generally thought of as an Asiatic genus, its distribution falls within a little- studied pattern of taxa of primarily Asiatic affinities with outliers in tropical America (cf. Buck 1987 for a listing of some such genera). It was not until 1982 that the genus was reported for the Americas, when W. C. Steere reported material of what he described as a new species from Colombia and Ecuador. Spo- rophytically, the genus is immediately recognizable because of erect cylindric spinose capsules. Unfor- tunately, because the plants are dioicous, seldom producing male plants, they are rarely fertile. In fact, we have seen only two collections with sporophytes: the type of Symphyodon americanus from Colom-
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