Sori round to oblong; sporangia pedicelled; spores without epispore, with or without paraphyses. Rhizome paleate; fronds simple to pinnatifid, not articulate to rhizome; veins free, once or more forked, only occ. anastomosing. Over 300 spp. (if Ctenopteris be included) of wide distribution.

Small ferns, usually epiphytic, sometimes terrestrial or rupestral, usually of mossy forest. Rhizome erect or short-creeping or long-creeping, paleate, the paleae very rarely ciliate and rarely absent. Stipes glabrous, glabrescent or pilose, hairs unicellular, paleae very rarely present. Lamina usually simple, linear, lanceolate or oblanceolate, margin sometimes crenate, glabrous or pilose, hairs unicellular, very rarely multicellular, paleae absent, texture membranous to thickly coriaceous, veins free, sometimes with casual anastomoses near margin, usually forked, oblique to midrib; sori exindusiate, single on acroscopic vein branches (or on both acroscopic and basiscopic branches when veins much branched) usually in a single row on each side of the costa, globose to linear, rarely confluent at maturity, superficial to moderately immersed, sometimes deeply so. Sporangia nude or setose, stalk with one row of cells for most of its length, indurated cells of annulus 7-21. Spores with chlorophyll, globose-tetrahedral, trilete, sometimes germinating within the sporangium. Gametophyte elongate. Chromosome counts n = 33, 36, 37.