Marattia

Marattia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pteridophyta
Class:	Marattiopsida
Order:	Marattiales
Family:	Marattiaceae
Genus:	Marattia Swartz
Species
See text.

Marattia is a small genus of primitive, large, fleshy eusporangiate ferns. It is the type genus of the family Marattiaceae, Order Marattiales and Class Marattiopsida.^[1] Formerly considered to be a much larger genus, genetic analysis has shown that Marattia in the broad sense was paraphyletic, and subsequently the genera Ptisana and Eupodium were split off.^[2][3] Except for one species in Hawaii, the genus is neotropical.

The plants are large and terrestrial, with more or less erect rhizomes and fronds being 2-5 times pinnate. Sporangia are fused into synangia, and spores are monolete.

Basal chromosome count is 2n=80. The type species is M. alata.

Species List

• Marattia alata Sw. – Jamaica and Cuba
• Marattia cicutifolia Kaulf. – southern Brazil
• Marattia douglasii (C. Presl) Baker – pala, kapua ilio, or Hawaii potato fern; Hawaii
• Marattia excavata Underw. – Mexico to Panama
• Marattia interposita Christ – Guatemala to Panama
• Marattia laxa Kunze – Mexico to Panama
• Marattia weinmanniifolia Liebm. – southern Mexico to El Salvador

References

1. Smith, Alan R.; Kathleen M. Pryer; Eric Schuettpelz; Petra Korall; Harald Schneider; Paul G. Wolf (2006). "A classification for extant ferns" (PDF). Taxon. 55 (3): 705–731. doi:10.2307/25065646. JSTOR 25065646.
2. Murdock, Andrew G. (2008). "Phylogeny of marattioid ferns (Marattiaceae) inferring a root in the absence of a closely related outgroup". American Journal of Botany. 95 (5): 626–641. doi:10.3732/ajb.2007308. PMID 21632388.
3. Murdock, Andrew G. (2008). "A taxonomic revision of the eusporangiate fern family Marattiaceae, with description of a new genus Ptisana". Taxon. 57 (3): 737–755.