Tectariaceae


Tectariaceae is a family of leptosporangiate ferns in the order Polypodiales. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, the family is placed in the suborder Polypodiineae. Alternatively, it may be treated as the subfamily Tectarioideae of a very broadly defined family Polypodiaceae sensu lato. The family comprises seven genera, of which Tectaria is by far the largest.

Taxonomy

In 1990, Karl U. Kramer and coauthors treated Pleocnemia and 7 of the currently recognized genera as a subfamily of Dryopteridaceae. Two other genera, Arthropteris and Psammiosorus, along with Oleandra, constituted Kramer's Oleandraceae. It is now known that Kramer's version of Dryopteridaceae is polyphyletic. Arthropteris lies within Tectariaceae and Tectariaceae is sister to a clade consisting of Oleandraceae, Davalliaceae, and Polypodiaceae. In 2006, in a revision of fern classification, Tectariaceae was an accepted family. In 2007, a molecular phylogenetic study of Dryopteridaceae included Pleocnemia and showed that it belongs in Dryopteridaceae. Also in 2007, Dracoglossum was named as a new genus. It has since been removed to Lomariopsidaceae.

Phylogeny

The following cladogram for the suborder Polypodiineae, based on the consensus cladogram in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, shows a likely phylogenetic relationship between Tectariaceae and the other families of the clade.
In 2016, a cladistic analysis of Tectariaceae separated two new genera, Draconopteris and Malaifilix, from Tectaria sensu stricto. The analysis arranged the genera as follows:

Genera

, the Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World accepted the following genera. Polydictyum was separated from Tectaria after the publication of PPG I in 2016.