| 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 | |
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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 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 of Vittaria [11] [12] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Other species include: