Thelypteris
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Thelypteridaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Small to moderately large terrestrial or epilithic ferns. Rhizomes slender and wide-creeping to thick and erect, usually clothed at the apex with glabrous, hairy, or glandular scales. Fronds scattered to fasciculate; stipes not articulate; blades usually 1-pinnate or 1- pinnate-pinnatifid, not or slightly dimorphic, glabrous or commonly pubescent, the hairs simple, forked, or stellate, the veins free, more or less connivent at sinuses, or variously reticulate. Sori roundish or elliptic (rarely slightly elongate or diffuse), on lower surface of veins; indusium wanting or round to kidney-shaped, attached at the sinus; paraphyses usually absent; spores ellipsoidal, monolete, the perispore variously reticulate, crested, or winged, rarely papillate or spiny.
Distribution and Ecology - Treated in a broad sense, the genus contains nearly 1000 species distributed over much of the world.