Terrestrial ferns. Rhizomes long-creeping, scaly. Rhizome scales non-clathrate, broadly ovate, membranous, entire or undulate. Fronds strongly dimorphic; the fertile fronds shorter and greatly contracted, persistent 2–3 years; the sterile fronds deciduous, the bases swollen and surviving as storage organs over winter. Stipes chestnut-brown proximally, yellow-brown distally, glabrous or with a few scattered scales. Fertile laminae 2-pinnate, with the lamina greatly reduced, coriaceous, glabrous. Sterile laminae pinnatifid distally, pinnatifid to 1-pinnate-pinnatifid proximally, herbaceous or papery, glabrous or with scattered scales and hairs. Veins in fertile laminae free; veins in sterile laminae reticulate, areoles without free included veinlets. Sori round, on short receptacles, protected by strongly inrolled pinna margins; paraphyses absent. Indusia triangular, vestigial. Spores monolete, perispores with a few low folds and minutely echinate.
Onoclea is a monotypic genus that occurs in eastern Asia and North America. One species occurs as a casual in New Zealand.
Category | Number |
---|---|
Exotic: Casual | 1 |
Total | 1 |
The base chromosome number Onoclea is x = 37 (Kramer 1990).