Ascogrammitis Sundue, Brittonia

Smith, Alan R., Kessler, Michael, León, Blanca, Almeida, Thaís Elias, Jiménez-Pérez, Iván & Lehnert, Marcus, 2018, Prodromus of a fern flora for Bolivia. XL. Polypodiaceae, Phytotaxa 354 (1), pp. 448-450 : 448-450

Ascogrammitis Sundue, Brittonia 62(4): 361(–362). 2010.

Until it was named, species of Ascogrammitis were included in a much larger genus, Terpsichore s.l., and prior to that in the highly polymorphic and still larger genus Grammitis s.l. Ascogrammitis comprises 16 species distributed in neotropical montane evergreen forests ( Sundue 2010a); six species are known from Bolivia. It is one of two monophyletic groups of grammitid ferns that are associated with the bitunicate epibiotic ascomycete Acrospermum , and the presence of these ascomes is a useful diagnostic character for the genus. The species occur particularly in evergreen cloud forests of the northern and central Andes. It is distinguished from all other genera of grammitid ferns by ventral root insertion; clathrate rhizome scales with a hemi-cordate base and reddish setose margins; setae and hairs present on the fronds, with the hairs 1-furcate and 3-celled with one branch that is setiform; hemidimorphic fronds with the fertile portions of fronds more densely setose than the sterile portions; hydathodes; veins that are not surrounded by dark sclerenchyma; and slightly elliptic inframedial sori that are confined to the distal portion of the fronds ( Sundue 2010a).

Phylogenetic studies suggest that Ascogrammitis is sister to a much larger clade of largely neotropical grammitids, including at least five other genera: Mycopteris + Galactodenia + Melpomene + Stenogrammitis + Lellingeria ( Sundue 2010 a, Sundue et al. 2010).