''Hemionitis'' is a genus of

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s in the subfamily

Cheilanthoideae Cheilanthoideae is one of the five subfamilies of the fern family Pteridaceae. The subfamily is understood to be monophyletic, but some of the genera as currently defined are not. Most species are xeric-adapted, and the subfamily is most diverse ...

of the family

Pteridaceae Pteridaceae is a family of ferns in the order Polypodiales, including some 1150 known species in ca 45 genera (depending on taxonomic opinions), divided over five subfamilies. The family includes four groups of genera that are sometimes recogni ...

. Its

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: * Circumscribed circle * Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthr ...

varies greatly in different systems of fern classification. In the

Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group The Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish on the classification of pteridophytes ( lycophytes and ferns) that reflects knowledge about plant relationships discove ...

classification of 2016 (PPG I), it was one of more than 20 genera in the subfamily Cheilanthoideae, and was said to have five species. Other sources treat it as the only genus in the subfamily, and so accept about 450 species. With the restricted circumscription, species are native to tropical America.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Hemionitis'' was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1753. The genus name is pre-Linnaean, being used for example in the ''

Hortus Cliffortianus The ''Hortus Cliffortianus'' is a work of early botanical literature published in 1737. The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus and the illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret, financed by George Clifford in 1735–1736. Clifford was a we ...

'', and derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word (), meaning 'mule', referring to the belief that the plants were sterile. (Linnaeus used the same word in the name "'' Asplenium hemionitis''".) The division of the subfamily

into genera varies greatly between sources . Christenhusz et al. (2011), the

classification of 2016 (PPG I), and the ''Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World'' divide the subfamily into 20 or more genera, of which one is ''Hemionitis''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...

. On the other hand, Christenhusz et al. (2018) and ''

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

'' use ''Hemionitis''

sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

as a catch-all genus for the subfamily, resulting in about 450 species.

Species

Using the PPG I approach, , the ''Checklist of Ferns and Lycophytes of the World'' accepted the following species (and one hybrid) in ''Hemionitis'' sensu stricto. All are native to tropical America. *'' Hemionitis levyi'' E.Fourn. *'' Hemionitis palmata'' L. *'' Hemionitis pinnatifida'' Baker *'' Hemionitis rufa'' (L.) Sw. *'' Hemionitis tomentosa'' (Lam.) Raddi *'' Hemionitis umbrosa'' R.Y.Hirai & J.Prado * ''Hemionitis'' × ''smithii'' (Trevis.) C.Chr. = ''H. palmata'' × ''H. rufa''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5405952 Pteridaceae Fern genera