Abstract: Leptochilus is a small microsoroid genus in Polypodiaceae. The circumscription of this genus was quite ill-delimited and its species were once referred to Paraleptochilus, Dendroglossa, Myuropteris and Nistarika. Most recently, species of the genus Colysis were incorporated in it, resulting in more confusion in its taxonomy. During the preparation of an account for Flora of China, we made an analysis of the major morphological characters, geographical distribution, as well as the spore morphology of this genus. We found that Leptochilus and Colysis are obviously different in the pattern of their sori and thus the latter should be treated as an independent genus, but the four genera, i.e. Paraleptochilus, Dendroglossa, Myuropteris and Nistarika, cannot be accepted and are here reduced to syn-onyms of Leptochillus.

Key words: Leptochilus, Taxonomic revision