The World Flora Online

Plants coarse, terrestrial. Stems long-creeping, forked, stele protostelic (a solid rod of vascular tissue with phloem surrounding xylem), covered with scales or hairs. Leaves monomorphic, large, scrambling or trailing, 1--many times forked. Petiole not articulate to stem, with pair of opposite pinnae and arrested bud at apex, or rachis continuing and producing 2 or more pairs of opposite pinnae. Pinnae 1--several times forked, with arrested bud at each fork; indument of simple, branched, or stellate hairs [scales]. Veins free, 1--4-forked. Sori round, indusia absent. Sporangia 2--many on slightly elevated receptacle, sessile to subsessile; annulus complete, transverse, medial, longitudinally dehiscent; spores 120--800 per sporangium. Spores all alike, whitish to yellowish, bilateral to globose, monolete or trilete, generally smooth without elaborately ornamented surface. Gametophyte borne aboveground, green, obcordate to elongate.

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Plants terrestrial, often forming thickets. Rhizomes long creeping, protostelic, with scales or multicellular hairs. Fronds monomorphic, evergreen, erect, scrambling, or climbing, vernation circinate; stipe not articulate, distant, cylindrical, apex forked, with dormant bud; apical bud covered with hairs or scales; rachis simple to several times pseudodichotomously branched [or pinnate], with stellate hairs and/or ciliate scales when young, these persistent or glabrescent; pinnules pectinately pinnatisect; lobes elliptic or lanceolate, apex obtuse or acute; veins free, forked; lamina papery or subleathery, frequently glaucous abaxially. Sori in 1(-3) lines on both sides of lobe costules, orbicular, exindusiate; sporangia 2-10[-16], sessile, turbinate, with a mid-transverse annulus; spores tetrahedral or reniform, without perispore, smooth.

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Perennial terrestrial herbs with wide–creeping rhizomes; frond apparently dichotomous, due to arrested growth owing to the formation of a dormant terminal bud; apex of rhizome and buds covered with scales or hairs; stipule–like leaflets present in some species; pinnae lobed almost to the costa, elongate (in W.African species), with forked free veins; sori on the veins punctate with a few large subsessile sporangia; no indusium; annulus uniseriate, sharply defined, oblique and complete except at the line of dehiscence; dehiscence vertical; spore trilete (in W.African species)

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Terrestrial herbs, often large, with widely creeping rhizomes bearing scales and/or hairs

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Fougères terrestres, à frondes pennées ou plusieurs fois pennées, de texture coriace, à nervures libres. Sores dorsaux, sporanges peu nombreux, subsessiles, à anneau complet, médian, à dehiscence verticale, pas d'indusie.

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SELECTED REFERENCES

Holttum, R. E. 1957. Morphology, growth habit, and classification in the family Gleicheniaceae. Phytomorphology 7: 168--184. Maxon, W. R. 1909. Gleicheniaceae. In: N. L. Britton et al., eds. 1905--1972. North American Flora. New York. Vol. 16, pp. 53--63. Underwood, L. M. 1907. American ferns --- VIII. A preliminary review of the North American Gleicheniaceae. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 34: 243--262.

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