Aspleniaceae

Terrestrial or epiphytic ferns. Rhizome shortly creeping or suberect, rarely long-creeping, dictyostelic, clothed with non-peltate, clathrate scales. Stipes mostly fascicled, not articulated to the rhizome. Fronds simple, lobed, 1-pinnate to pinnately decompound, membranous to coriaceous or almost cartilaginous. Veins free or reticulate, without free vein-endings in the areolae. Sori elongated along the veins with a similarly shaped indusium, rarely exindusiate. Sporangia with an annulus interrupted by the long, narrow pedicel which is composed mainly of 1 row of cells; the annulus including mostly 18–28 thick-walled cells. Spores bilateral, often spinulose, tuberculate or, with a perispore. 5 gen., cosmop.