mostly arborescent or with erect or ascending rhizomes; rhizomes with polycyclic dictyosteles, or solenostelic(Calochlaena); stem apices and usually petiolar bases covered with uniseriate hairs; blades large, 2–3 pinnate;veins simple to forked, free; sori abaxial and exindusiate (Lophosoria) or marginal (Calochlaena, Dicksonia) andeach with a bivalvate or cup-like indusium, the adaxial (outer) valve formed by the reflexed segment margin andoften differently colored; sporangia with oblique annuli; receptacles raised; paraphyses often present, filiform;spores globose or tetrahedral, trilete; x = 56 (Calochlaena), 65 (Dicksonia, Lophosoria).Lophosoria (3 spp.) is distinctive in having spores with a prominent subequatorial flange, with the proximalface coarsely tuberculate, the distal face perforate. It has often been recognized as comprising its own family,Lophosoriaceae (Pichi Sermolli, 1977; Tryon & Tryon, 1982; Kramer in Kubitzki, 1990).
Distribution
Terrestrial; eastern Asia, Australasia, Neotropics, St. Helena.
