Dennstaedtiaceae

Clades: Pteridales; Pterididae; Polypodianae; Pteridophyta; Plants.
Members: 12 genera: Blotiella, Coptodipteris, Dennstaedtia, Histiopteris, Hiya, Hypolepis, Leptolepia, Microlepia, Monachosorum, Oenotrichia, Paesia, Pteridium; ± 240 species.TaxonomyThe PPG1 classification places Dennstaedtiaceae in the class Polypodianae, but in a position between the Pteridales and Aspleniidae.Plant theoryIn the Plant theory Dennstaedtiaceae is placed in the Order Pteridales in Pterididae. It is placed in Subphase 7 of Pteridales, with confirmation from cases.BotanyFerns; terrestrial or scrambling (scandent) over rocks or stones (epilithic) or occasionally epiphytic.
Root: rhizomes long-creeping, occasionally short-creeping; bearing jointed hairs, or peltate, non-clathrate, entire scales, or both, with transitions; often solenostelic or protostelic with internal phloem, or rarely short and dyctiostelic.
Leaves: large; highly divided, bipinnate, tribipinnate to decompound, can be 1-4 pinnate or more divided, mostly distinctly anadromous; glabrous often at maturity, or bearing hairs, not scaly; hairs often persistent on leaf axespetioles close or more often remote, non-articulate, usually with one or two, less often several vascular bundles, with epipetiolar buds, usually with gutter-shaped vascular strand, either pubescent or glabrous; veins free, or forked, or pinnate, ending with more or less thickened ends behind the margin, rarely vanishing, free included veinlets none.
Stomata anomocytic and/or polocytic
Sori: either small, round intramarginal with cup-shaped indusia or linear marginal sori with a false indusium formed from the reflexed leaf margin; near the margin, or submarginal, sometimes fused with the blade to form a cup or pouch or obscured in a recurved portion of the blade margin joining 2 to very many vein ends; mostly linear, may be discrete
Indusia: linear or cup shaped at blade margin, or reflexed over sori
Indusia sometimes wanting and replaced by the reflexed, more or less modified leaf margin; sometimes such a "false" indusium present beside a "true" one
Sporangium: stalk with 1-3 rows of cells; sterile appendages among sporangia none or if present not or little differentiated from epidermal appendages
Capsule usually with well-differentiated stomium
Spore tetrahedral and trilete, or reniform and monolete, variously sculptured
Gametophyte: green, hairless, cordate, and the plate stage is reached soon after germination.Stages Remedies1 Monachosorum davallioides
2 Hypolepis millefolium
2 Hypolepis punctata
3 Hiya distans
6 Paesia scaberula
10 Histiopteris incisa
12 Pteridium aquilinum
16 Dennstaedtia davallioides
16 Dennstaedtia penctilobula
17 Microlepia platyphylla
17 Microlepia speluncae
x Blotiella natalensis
x Microlepia firma