Australian ferns & fern allies
Australian National Botanic Gardens
Australian National Herbarium

Lindsaeaceae

Small to medium-size terrestrial or epiphytic ferns, when terrestrial the rhizome radially symmetric or nearly so, solenostelic or a special protostele with internal phloem, when epiphytic the rhizome strongly dorsiventral, in some small species the xylem open and U-shaped, rhizome bearing non-peltate, non-clathrate scales. Fronds long-stipitate, the stipe with a single U- or V-shaped vascular bundle, the axes grooved above, the grooves and borders mostly continuous with those of a higher order, the lamina pinnate to many-times pinnate, anadromous, the ultimate divisions often dimidiate, veins free, not reaching the margin, or anastomosing without included free veinlets. Sori terminal on 1 - many vein ends, often on a vascular commissure +/- parallel to the margin, indusiate, the indusium attached at the base of the sorus and opening towards the margin, sporangia with a 3-seriate stalk, annulus longitudinal, interrupted, filiform paraphyses mostly present; spores trilete or less often monolete, smooth or with little sculpture, perispore absent.

Distribution

Essentially a pantropic family extending into the warmer temperate regions, of 6 genera covering c. 200 species. Three genera are represented in Papuasia with a total of perhaps 50 species.

Literature

Genera

Note

This family is sometimes included in the Adiantaceae, Dennstaedtiaceae or Pteridaceae by those authors who prefer broader families.

Return to the
Australian National Herbarium
page

---

Updated November 1999 by Jim Croft (jrc@anbg.gov.au)

---