Schizaeaceae

Small evergreen ferns that are most unfern-like, often less than 10 cm in height, with slender, spiralling and curling sterile leaves, and taller erect slender fertile leaves that resemble toothbrushes; one species in NB, Curly-grass Fern, but many in the tropics and subtropics.

At the tips of the fertile leaves are 3 to 8 pairs of leaflets that are tiny, crowded and folded together and looking one-sided. Spore-producing structures are pear-shaped and occur in a double row along the vein on the back of the leaflets. The sterile and fertile leaves occur together in tufts, arising from short slender densely rooting underground stems (rhizomes).

In NB, limited to bog and fen habitats close to the Bay of Fundy.