Climbers, large. Rhizome long creeping on tree trunk, stout, bearing roots ventrally and fronds in 3-5 dorsal rows, dictyostelic, apex densely covered with black opaque scales. Stipes stramineous, often terete, gradually decurrent into ridges of rhizome; lamina simply pinnate, lateral pinnae articulate to rachis, terminal pinnae not so, pinnae equal, shortly stalked, lanceolate, leathery or papery, glabrescent, margin entire; veins all free, simple or forked, parallel and terminating at cartilaginous margin; fertile pinnae contracted, linear to linear-oblong. Sori acrostichoid, completely covering abaxial surface of pinnae; annulus consisting of 14-22 thick-walled cells. Spores monolete, brownish, elliptic. x = 41.

About 20 species: tropical Asia and Africa; three species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Xing Fuwu (邢福武), Wang Faguo (王发国); Masahiro Kato)