Ophioglossaceae

Small to medium perennial ferns with an inclined leathery, succulent or membranous leafy sterile portion and an upright fertile spike or panicle, usually bearing many clusters of round grape like spore-producing structures (sporangia), both growing from a short upright underground stem (rhizome); Adder’s-tongue Ferns, Grapeferns, Moonworts and Rattlesnake Fern. The spore-producing structures may arise from a common stalk, may not be on a stalk, or may be embedded in the leaf or stem, rarely in 2 rows (Adder’s-tongue Fern). Spores tend to be thick-walled. The sterile leaf blade may be deciduous to evergreen, green to bronze, entire to more than thrice-divided, stalked or unstalked, oval to triangular, and net-veined or with free veins.