Greek dory - spear, pteris - fern; referring to the shape of the frond blades in some species.

Rhizome erect or short-creeping, scales blackish. Sterile and fertile fronds similar or different. Fronds in clusters, undivided to palmate, evergreen, hairless, leathery, the fertile ones sometimes longer stalked and with smaller blades. Stalk blackish, shiny. Blade mostly pedate or palmate, the inner lobe of basal segments the largest; veins netted or free. Sori marginal or just inside the margin, more or less continuous when mature; indusium a reflexed marginal flap.

c. 35 species of tropics and subtropics centred in S America (2 species in Australia).

Division or spores. Bulbils are occasionally produced on the veins.

Fronds mostly divided 3 times, palm shaped.

Tryon (1942).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Adiantaceae. 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.