Vittaria

{{Short description|Genus of ferns}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Vittaria lineata.jpg

| image_caption = Vittaria lineata

| taxon = Vittaria

| authority = Sm.

| type_species = Vittaria lineata

| type_species_authority = (L.) Sm.

| synonyms =

• Oetosis de Necker ex Greene 1900 non de Necker ex Kuntze 1891
• Taeniopsis Smith 1841

}}

Vittaria, the shoestring ferns,{{PLANTS|id=VITTA|taxon=Vittaria|access-date=6 August 2015}} is a genus of ferns in the Vittarioideae subfamily of the family Pteridaceae. It had previously been placed in the family Vittariaceae,Karl U. Kramer. 1990. "Vittariaceae". pages 272-277. In: Klaus Kubitzki (general editor); Karl U. Kramer and Peter S. Green (volume editors) The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume I. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. {{ISBN|978-0-387-51794-0}} but that family is no longer recognized.Alan R. Smith, Kathleen M. Pryer, Eric Schuettpelz, Petra Korall, Harald Schneider, and Paul G. Wolf. 2008. "Davalliaceae". pages 443-444. In: "Fern Classification". pages 417-467. In: Tom A. Ranker and Christopher H. Haufler (editors). Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-87411-3}}

Vittaria consists of epiphytes, with simple, entire, narrowly linear fronds.David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. {{ISBN|978-0-521-82071-4}} 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.Edmund H. Crane. 1997. "A Revised Circumscription of the Genera of the Fern Family Vittariaceae". Systematic Botany 22(3):509-517. Vittaria isoetifolia and Vittaria lineata are known, albeit rarely, in cultivation.Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press,Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. {{ISBN|978-0-333-47494-5}} (set).

Vittaria was named by James Edward Smith in 1793 Vittaria in International Plant Names Index. (see External links below). in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Turin).James Edward Smith. 1793. Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Turin) 5:413, pl. 9. The generic name is derived from the Latin, vitta, meaning "a band or ribbon".Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume IV, page ?. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington,DC;, USA. London, UK. {{ISBN|978-0-8493-2673-8}} (set). (see External links below).

In 1990, Vittaria was defined broadly and estimated to have between 50 and 80 species. 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. Twenty of these were transferred to Haplopteris and eight to Radiovittaria, leaving only six in Vittaria.