Dryopteridaceae

Mostly medium to large perennial ferns, with firm leathery, and often evergreen or tardily deciduous, leaves arising in vase-shaped clumps or tufts from a stout underground stem (rhizome); numerous chaffy scales usually on the lower part of the above ground portion of the stems; and each of the small spore-producing structures (sori) on the underside of the leaflets covered with a round to kidney-shaped membrane (indusium) attached at its centre.

Spore-producing structures mostly in a single row on either side of the leaflet midrib and its segments. The spore-bearing leaflets in some species smaller (Christmas Fern) or tilted at a 90 degree angle to the stem (Crested Wood-fern).

Leaves 1-3 times-divided, or nearly so, the leaf surfaces smooth, or with scales and/or glands, and the margins of leaflets often toothed. The leaf stalk roughly the same length as the leaf or much shorter than it. Underground portion of stem (rhizome) may be erect or creeping, and is usually covered in scales as well as the bases of old stems.

Hybridization occurs frequently among species in each genus, and occasionally with a species in the other genus within this family.