Kaulinia is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of Polypodiaceae

Polypodiaceae

Polypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...

, a family of ferns

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul

Kailas Nath Kaul

Professor Kailas Nath Kaul , FLS was an Indian botanist, agronomist, agricultural scientist, horticulturist, herbalist, and naturalist, and a world authority on Arecaceae in the 1950s...

, an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophyte

Sporophyte

All land plants, and some algae, have life cycles in which a haploid gametophyte generation alternates with a diploid sporophyte, the generation of a plant or algae that has a double set of chromosomes. A multicellular sporophyte generation or phase is present in the life cycle of all land plants...

s and gametophyte

Gametophyte

A gametophyte is the haploid, multicellular phase of plants and algae that undergo alternation of generations, with each of its cells containing only a single set of chromosomes....

s of several species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two phyletically distinct groups of species existed in the genus. The group represented by Microsorum pteropus

Microsorum pteropus

Microsorum pteropus, commonly known as Java fern an aquatic fern from southeast Asia, is highly variable with several different geographic varieties that vary in leaf size and shape. It is found attached to roots and rocks in nature....

and Microsorum hancockii seemed to have a different ancestry from the other group, now a genus known as Kaulinia.