1. Grammitis Swartz, J. Bot. (Schrader). 1800(2): 3, 17. 1802.
[Greek gramme, line, alluding to the elongate sori in a few species]
Alan R. Smith
Plants often less than 15 cm [rarely more than 50 cm]. Blade pinnatifid [simple to 1-pinnate or rarely more divided], bristly [or glabrous], glandless [or glandular]; setae dark reddish brown [to transparent]. Veins simple or 1-forked [to pinnately veined] in each segment, free, ending in hydathodes adaxially. Sori round [to oval or elongate], not forming a coenosorus, not sunken; paraphyses absent [or present]. x = 32, 33, 36, 37.
Species ca. 300 or more (1 in the flora): tropical and subtropical, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, Australia.
The total number of species is based on acceptance of a relatively broad circumscription. Our sole species belongs to the group (genus or subgenus) formerly called Xiphopteris , a name that is now treated as a synonym of Cochlidium (L. E. Bishop 1978). This group comprises perhaps 30 species and is defined by the following characteristics: stem scales not clathrate, often marginally bristly; veins simple or with a single acroscopic branch in each segment; blades linear, usually pinnatifid or pinnatisect; lack of a marginal black border around blade; one sorus per segment; and hydathodes present. It probably warrants generic status under the name Micropolypodium Hayata, a primarily neotropical genus with representatives in eastern Asia (Malaysia, China, Sikkim, Taiwan, and Japan).
SELECTED REFERENCES
Bishop, L. E. 1978. Revision of the genus Cochlidium (Grammitidaceae). Amer. Fern J. 68: 76--94. Farrar, D. R. 1967. Gametophytes of four tropical fern genera reproducing independently of their sporophytes in the southern Appalachians. Science 155: 1266--1267.
