Botanical Family · Polypodiales

Pteridaceae

Maidenhair Fern Family

20 speciesOrder Polypodiales8+ well-known plants

The Pteridaceae family (Maidenhair Fern Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Polypodiales. In the SASYA catalogue it spans 20 species across 9 genera. Its members are predominantly herbs. Well-represented genera include Pteris, Adiantum and Oeosporangium. Several members are valued in traditional medicine. Familiar examples include Golden Leather Fern, Fan-Leaved Fern and Tailed Maidenhair.

Browse all 20 species ↓

Representative specimen · Pteridaceae

Key pattern

Delicate, often finely divided fern fronds — many resembling maidenhair's fan-shaped leaflets — that reproduce by spores rather than flowers or seeds; check the underside of a mature frond for rows or margins of tiny spore capsules (sori).

As true ferns, this family bears no flowers, fruit, or seeds at all — identification rests entirely on frond shape, division pattern, and where the sori sit along the leaflet margin.

Identify the species

Which Pteridaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Pteridaceae species.

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Leaf TypeHow divided are the fronds?

Fan-shaped, palmately divided

Finely doubly-divided (bipinnate, lacy)

Once-divided (pinnate)

Pinnately compound

HabitWhere does the fern grow?

Aquatic (floating/rooted in water)

On rocks or walls

Terrestrial (in soil)

Leaf SurfaceIs there a distinctive color on the frond underside?

Plain green underside

Silvery-white powdery underside

HabitWhere does the fern grow?

On rocks or walls

Terrestrial (in soil)

Family identification method

To check whether a plant belongs to Pteridaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.

Learn the full family-identification method