Ctenopteris is a defunct genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae. The name is derived from two Greek words: ktenos, "comb", and pteris, "fern".Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume I. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC, USA. London, UK. .
The name "Ctenopteris" can no longer be used because its type species, Ctenopteris venulosa has been transferred to Prosaptia.Barbara S. Parris. 2009. "New genera of Malesian Grammitidaceae". Blumea 54(1-3):217-219. Because Ctenopteris is polyphyletic, some of its species were not transferred to Prosaptia with the type species. For these, the name Ctenopteris was used provisionally, pending their reassignment to other genera.Michael A. Sundue, Melissa Islam, and Tom A. Ranker. In press. Systematic Botany.
Edwin Bingham Copeland wrote extensively on Ctenopteris in the 1940s and 1950s.Edwin Bingham Copeland. 1947. Genera filicum: the genera of ferns, Published by Chronica Botanica Company, vol. 5, 247 pagesEdwin B. Copeland. 1956. "Ctenopteris in America". Philippine Journal of Science 84(4). As he defined it, the genus was broadly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere including Australia, New Zealand, southern Asia and southern Africa.
References