Schizaeaceae

Schizaea Sm.

Comb Ferns

5 species native AUST.; all states and territories

Small terrestrial ferns growing on poor sandy soils in open forests and swamps, sometimes found near waterfalls. Rhizome creeping or ascending, protostelic (an advanced type); the apex covered with brown hairs. Stipes wiry, scarcely distinguishable from the lamina. Lamina simple, forked or flabellately dichotomous, terete, angular or flattened, often grasslike. Segments 1-veined. Sporangiophores at the apex of the lamina or its segments. Veins free, each segment 1-veined. Sporangia brown, in 2 or 4 rows, sometimes mixed with hairs, protected when young by the reflexed margins of the lobes; the annulus complete, distal, operculiform. Spores bilateral.