Cystopteridaceae
(Payer) ShmakovTerrestrial or rock crevice-dwelling ferns. Rhizome short- to long-creeping or suberect, covered in lanceolate, latticed or non-latticed scales. Fronds not articulated at the rhizome, closely spaced to distant; stipe bearing scales or hairs. Lamina thin-textured, 1–3 pinnate-pinnatifid; rachises and midribs rounded below, flattened and grooved above; veins free, terminating at leaf margin. Sori along veins, not on margins, round or slightly elongate, raised on a hardened receptacle, with indusium attached at the base and curving hood-like over the sporangia when young towards the margin, or without indusium (not Australia); spores monolete, non-chlorophyllous.
3 genera in montane temperate regions of the world and tropical Asia; 1 genus in Australia.
Taxa within this family were previously included within the Athyriaceae. However, phylogenetic analyses using DNA sequence data have revealed that these taxa are misplaced in this family, with these taxa forming an isolated lineage that is more distantly related to Athyriaceae than several other large families such as the Aspleniaceae, Blechnaceae and Thelypteridaceae (Rothfels et al. 2012).
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