Vittaria
Genus of ferns
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vittaria, the shoestring ferns,[1] is a genus of ferns in the Vittarioideae subfamily of the family Pteridaceae.[2] It had previously been placed in the family Vittariaceae,[3] but that family is no longer recognized.[4]
| Vittaria | |
|---|---|
| |
| Vittaria lineata | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Division: | Polypodiophyta |
| Class: | Polypodiopsida |
| Order: | Polypodiales |
| Family: | Pteridaceae |
| Subfamily: | Vittarioideae |
| Genus: | Vittaria Sm. |
| Type species | |
| Vittaria lineata | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Vittaria consists of epiphytes, with simple, entire, narrowly linear fronds.[5] It comprises six species, five of which are native to the neotropics. Vittaria isoetifolia is native to tropical Africa and islands of the southwestern Indian Ocean.[6] Vittaria isoetifolia and Vittaria lineata are known, albeit rarely, in cultivation.[7]
Vittaria was named by James Edward Smith in 1793 [8] in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Turin).[9] The generic name is derived from the Latin, vitta, meaning "a band or ribbon".[10]
In 1990, Vittaria was defined broadly and estimated to have between 50 and 80 species.[3] The genus is difficult to divide into species, and many of the species are only doubtfully distinct. In a 1997 revision of the vittarioid ferns, only 34 species were recognized in Vittaria sensu lato.[6] Twenty of these were transferred to Haplopteris and eight to Radiovittaria, leaving only six in Vittaria.[6]
Phylogeny
| Phylogeny of Vittaria[11][12] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Other species include:
- V. flavicosta Mickel & Beitel 1988
- V. longipes Sodiro 1893