Schizaeaceae

Rhizome usually short-creeping with closely-placed fronds, less often widecreeping or somewhat erect, the young parts covered with thick septate hairs (except Mohria, not Malaysian), structure dorsiventral or radial, vascular strand in Malaysian genera a protostele (medullated in Schizaea). Fronds of very varied structure, their branching showing varying gradations from dichotomous to pinnate; veins usually free; sporangia borne on specialized segments of the fronds (sorophores) except in the non-Malaysian Mohria. Sorophores at the ends of veins of fertile leaflets (Lygodium), or in small pinnate groups at the apex of a frond or of its branches (Schizaea), or confined to special branches of the frond (Anemia, not Malaysian). Sporangia arising marginally but becoming superficial due to subsequent extra-marginal growths, large, borne on short massive stalks or sessile, with an almost apical annulus of a single row of elongate thickened cells, dehiscing on a line from annulus to base. Spores trilete or monolete (Schizaea only), without perispore, the surface usually sculptured. Gametophytes filamentous in Schizaea, thalloid in other genera, symmetrical or not. Distribution. The Malaysian genera Schizaea and Lygodium are pantropic with a few outlying species of both in temperate regions (U.S.A., S. Africa, Chile, Japan, and New Zealand). Anemia has its main distribution in tropical America, with a few species in Africa and one in southern India. Mohria is confined to southern and eastern Africa and the Mascarene Islands.