Greek thelus - female, pteris - fern.
Mostly short-lived and fast-growing terrestrial or swampland ferns. Rhizome usually long-creeping, thin, branched. Sterile and fertile fronds similar although fertile ones sometimes slightly smaller. Fronds tufted or spread along the rhizome, divided once. Blades soft. Segments deeply cut; veins free and often forked. Sori circular, scattered on the lower surface, black when mature. Indusia small and round to kidney-shaped but usually soon shed.
Thelypteris when considered in a broad sense consists of 800 or so species; however, it is generally divided into several genera: Australian botanists generally consider the genus in a narrow sense.
3 species world-wide (when considered in the narrowest sense) (1 in Australia).
Spores.
Rhizomes long-creeping; sori scattered or in poorly-defined rows; indusia round, black, soon shed.
Source: (1995). Thelypteridaceae. In: . 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.