Lindsaeaceae

Lindsaeaseae is a pantropical family of ferns in the order Polypodiales. It contains about 200 species, some of which also extend into the more temperate regions of eastern Asia, New Zealand, and South America.

For more than a century, these ferns were considered part of the Davalliaceae. Then starting in the mid-twentieth century they began to be transferred to the Dennstaedtiaceae. Molecular data supported the separation of Lindsaeaseae into its own family, which was proposed in 1970. Lindsaeaseae is considered the most basal of the Polypodiales.