Ctenopterella Thwaitesii

''Ctenopterella'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Grammitidoideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). It is known from Africa through southeast Asia and Oceania to Polynesia.

Description

The rhizomes are dorsiventral (having upper and lower surfaces clearly distinct in appearance), and bear two rows of stipes, which sometimes have distinct joints where they attach. Distinct phyllopodia are present in some below the joint. The rhizome scales are brown, glabrous, and dull to glossy.

Hairs, where present, are unbranched and branched, from whitish to brown in color. The leaf blades range from pinnatifid to pinnate-pinnatifid in cutting, bearing free veins which usually end in hydathodes on the upper surface of the leaf. Sori are borne beneath pinnae or lobes, sometimes slightly sunken into the leaf tissue, usually in two rows but rarely in one. The sori are circular to elliptic in shape; the sporangia lack hairs.

Taxonomy

The genus was first described by Barbara Parris in 2007 to receive some of the species of the polyphyletic genus ''Ctenopteris''; ''Ctenopterella'' is a diminutive form of that name. She initially placed twelve species in the genus. In 2013, she described a new species, ''Ctenopterella gabonensis'', from the Monts Doudou in Gabon, and transferred a Vietnamese species, ''Ctenopterella nhatrangensis'', into the genus. In 2015, she transferred three more species from ''Ctenopteris'', including one she had formerly placed in synonymy, in preparation for a monograph on the genus.

The only phylogenetic study so far to include any ''Ctenopterella'' species sampled ''Ctenopterella denticulata'' only. It found that this species, ''Acrosorus friderici-et-pauli'' (the type of its genus), and ''Grammitis stenophylla'' form a clade sister to the combined clade of '' Oreogrammitis'', '' Prosaptia'', '' Radiogrammitis'', and '' Themelium''. None of the three taxa in the first clade are particularly close morphologically. ''Ctenopterella denticulata'' has since been transferred to the genus '' Chrysogrammitis'' as '' Chrysogrammitis denticulata''.

Species

, the ''Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World'' accepted the following species and hybrids:

*''Ctenopterella blechnoides'' (Grev.) Parris
*''Ctenopterella boivinii'' (Mett. ex Kuhn) Rakotondr. & Parris
*''Ctenopterella cornigera'' (Baker) Parris
*''Ctenopterella fluvialis'' Parris
*''Ctenopterella gabonensis'' Parris
*''Ctenopterella gordonii'' (S.B.Andrews) Parris
*''Ctenopterella khaoluangensis'' (Tagawa & K.Iwats.) Parris
*''Ctenopterella lasiostipes'' (Mett.) Parris
*''Ctenopterella lastii'' Parris & Rakotondr.
*''Ctenopterella lepida'' (Brause) Parris
*''Ctenopterella macrorhyncha'' (Baker) Parris
*''Ctenopterella nhatrangensis'' (C.Chr. & Tardieu) Parris
*''Ctenopterella pacifica'' Parris
*''Ctenopterella parvula'' (Bory ex Willd.) Parris
*''Ctenopterella pediculata'' (Baker) Parris
*''Ctenopterella seemannii'' (J.Sm.) Parris
*'' Ctenopterella thwaitesii'' (Bedd.) Parris
*''Ctenopterella undosa'' (Baker) Parris
*'' Ctenopterella vodonaivalui'' (Brownlie) Parris
*''Ctenopterella zenkeri'' (Hieron.) Parris

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17187669

Polypodiaceae
Fern genera