Athyriaceae

English: Ladyferns.
Clades: Aspleniales; Aspleniineae; Polypodianae; Pteridophyta; Plants.
Genera: Athyrium; Deparia; Diplazium; Anisocampium; Cornopteris; Pseudathyrium.
Region: worldwide, cosmopolitan; temperate and tropical areas.
Habitat: pantropical, few temperate areas; understory, below trees and shrubs; prefer moist, shaded habitats, forests, woodlands, stream banks.Plant theoryAthyriaceae is treated as a family in the order Aspleniales and Subclass Aspleniidae. It is placed in subphase 3, which is confirmed by practice. TaxonomyIn the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 Athyriaceae is placed in the suborder Aspleniineae, also named Eupolypods II clade. Christenhusz and Chase treated Athyriaceae as the subfamily Athyrioideae of a very broadly defined family Aspleniaceae.
In the past Athyriaceae included Cystopteris and Gymnocarpium, which are now in Dennstaedtiaceae. Athyriaceae has been subsumed in the family Woodsiaceae, but a Woodsiaceae defined in this way may be paraphyletic.BotanyIdentification: few constant features.
Ferns: terrestrial or lithophytic, less commonly aquatic; medium-sized.
Roots: rhizome: short or long, creeping or erect, underground. branched or not; scaly.
Stem: green; deeply grooved from above; scaly or glabrous; with two lunate vascular bundles; blades singular or in sets of two; entirely pinnate; oblong-lanceolate to deltate; herbaceous to papery; with linear basal sori, paired back-to-back on the same vein; indusium is linear and persistent.
Leaves: deciduous or evergreen; trophopodic; monomorphic or weakly dimorphic; pinnate; leaflets lance-shaped, oblong, or linear, with serrated or lobed margins.
Sori: round; covered by indusia; on undersides of the leaflets.
Sporangia: brownish; with stalks two or three cells wide in the middle, and contain brown monolete spores.DD Genera1a Groove of costa interrupted at base and not confluent with groove of rachis; multicellular hairs present on stipe, rachis and costae, rarely few or absent: Deparia
1b Groove of costa continuous with groove of rachis; multicellular hairs absent or sometimes present: 2
2a Sori exindusiate; fleshy projections present at base of costa: Cornopteris.
2b Sori indusiate; fleshy projections absent: 3
3a Sori linear or oblong, not J- or U-shaped; groove of rachis and costa U-shaped with flat base in cross section: Diplazium.
3b Sori various in shape, linear, oblong, J- or U-shaped, or round-reniform; groove of rachis and costa V-shaped in cross section: 4
4a Rhizome ascending or shortly creeping; stipe base usually broadened, with pneumatophores on sides, narrowed downward; spines at base of costules and midvein present or absent adaxially; lamina 2- or 3-pinnate, sometimes pinnate
or bipinnatifid, usually gradually narrowed to apex: Athyrium.
4b Rhizome creeping or ascending; stipe base not broadened, devoid of pneumatophores; spines absent; lamina pinnate or bipinnatifid, in A. niponicum bipinnate to tripinnatifid, abruptly narrowed to apex or terminated by pinna conform
to lateral pinnae: Anisocampium.Stages Remedies5 Athyrium filix-femina
9 Athyrium otophorum
x Cornopteris crenulato-serrulata
x Anisocampium niponicum
x Athyrium distentifolium