Plants coarse, terrestrial. Stems long-creeping, forked, stele protostelic (a solid rod of vascular tissue with phloem surrounding xylem), covered with scales or hairs. Leaves monomorphic, large, scrambling or trailing, 1--many times forked. Petiole not articulate to stem, with pair of opposite pinnae and arrested bud at apex, or rachis continuing and producing 2 or more pairs of opposite pinnae. Pinnae 1--several times forked, with arrested bud at each fork; indument of simple, branched, or stellate hairs [scales]. Veins free, 1--4-forked. Sori round, indusia absent. Sporangia 2--many on slightly elevated receptacle, sessile to subsessile; annulus complete, transverse, medial, longitudinally dehiscent; spores 120--800 per sporangium. Spores all alike, whitish to yellowish, bilateral to globose, monolete or trilete, generally smooth without elaborately ornamented surface. Gametophyte borne aboveground, green, obcordate to elongate.