Lindsaya Kaulfuss; Schizolegnia Alston; Schizoloma Gaudichaud; Synaphlebium J. Smith.

Plants terrestrial, climbing or epiphytic. Rhizomes creeping with a Lindsaea-type protostele (differs from a true protostele by presence of a central core of phloem within xylem mass usually concentrated on dorsal side of rhizome), covered with subulate scales or acicular hairs or both. Fronds approximate or distant; stipe short, stramineous or castaneous, shallowly sulcate adaxially, glabrous; lamina 1- or 2-pinnate or pinnatifid, gradually narrowed toward apex, rarely with a terminal pinna, herbaceous to papery; rachis widely sulcate, abaxially keeled; ultimate pinnules or segments usually dimidiate or flabellate; veins free or anastomosing in a few species. Sori marginal or submarginal, linear, terminal on 2 to many uniting veins, or rarely orbicular and terminal on a single vein; annulus consisting of 9-17 thickened cells; indusia linear or oblong, usually attached only at base. Spores usually tetrahedral-globose and trilete.

Lindsaea kawabatae Kurata (J. Geobot. 13: 100. 1965), recorded from Taiwan, could not be treated here because no material was seen by the present authors. For more details, see Knapp (Ferns Fern Allies Taiwan, 93-95. 2011), who distinguished it from other Taiwanese species by the very small narrowly cuneate pinnules.

About 200 species: tropical and subtropical areas, extending north to Japan and south to S Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand; 13 species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Dong Shiyong (董仕勇); Lin Sujuan (林苏娟), Julie Barcelona)