Dryopteridaceae -- the wood fern family (60/3000; cosmopolitan)
Plants homosporous
Habit herbs with erect or creeping scaly rhizomes
Leaves simple or 1-5 times pinnatelycompound; arranged alternately; monomorphic or dimorphic; more or less scaly, at least at petiole base
Vernation circinate
Sporangia leptosporangia (very small stalked sporangia with annuli) organized into round to oblong or linear sori away from leaf margins or continuous on underside of leaf blade (abaxially)
Indusia present attached centrally relative to sorus or on 1 side of sorus
Spores uniform in size, small; oblong to reniform in shape
Gametophytes bisexual, aboveground, thin, green, photosynthetic