Gleicheniaceae

Erect or straggling terrestrial ferns which usually grow in dense clumps or stands. Rhizome long-creeping, branched, sparsely clothed with hairs or scales, mostly protostelic or rarely solenostelic. Fronds 1-pinnate or several times pinnate, often pseudo-dichotomously branched, with dormant terminal scaly or hairy leaf-apices; the lamina clothed with simple or branched hairs and/or fringed scales. Vernation circinnate. Ultimate segments flat or saccate, herbaceous or coriaceous; stomates present. Veins free. Sori exindusiate, rosette-like, superficial, borne on the lower surface of the lamina, often surrounded by floccose hairs. Sporangia few, 1–12 in each sorus, broadly pear-shaped; the annulus complete, transverse or oblique, dehiscing by a longitudinal slit; the pedicel short. Paraphyses present in some genera. Receptacle small, rounded. Spores bilateral or tetrahedral, without a perispore. 5 gen., trop to temp., mostly S. Hemisphere.