Fleshy perennial herbs with separate fertile spike and sterile lamina sharing common stalk. Rhizome short, erect; roots thick and fleshy; apex protected by sheathing base of immature frond. Fronds solitary or more rarely two, annual, erect, pinnate or much divided; venation open, dichotomous. Sporangia thick, free from one another, short-stalked, dehiscing transversely.
Cosmopolitan, c. 36 species; 2 occurring in Australia, both in Victoria.
Source:
Entwisle, T.J. (1994). Ferns and allied plants (Psilophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Polypodiophyta). In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 13–111. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
