Greek makros - large or long, theyus - female, lady, pteris - fern.

Rhizomes short-creeping to more or less erect, mostly thin, branched, covered with narrow scales. Sterile and fertile fronds similar. Fronds tufted, divided 2-3 times, to 1 m or more long, evergreen, in clusters. Stalk long. Blade more or less lanceolate in outline, the lower branches often slightly shorter. Segments broadly attached at the base and without a groove along the upper stem surfaces; veins free, veinlets forked and not reaching the margins. Sori small, marginal. Indusia absent, or round to kidney-shaped.

c. 9 species the Pacific, Asia, Malesia, Africa and tropical America (2 species in Australia).

Spores or division.

Frond blade divided 2 or occasionally 3 times; midrib of side branches not grooved on the upper surface; sori small, mostly roundish, marginal.

Holttum (1969).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Thelypteridaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.