Region: cosmopolitan; northern hemisphere as late as the Mesozoic, but by the Quaternary, there was a clear shift to a southern hemisphere distribution.
BotanyLeaves: dimorphic, fertile and sterile fronds; lack well-defined sori. Sporangia: with a horizontal annulus that lies below and completely encircles the top of the sporangium.
FamiliesWell-distinguished from one another by numerous morphological characters
Schizaeaceae: 2 genera, Actinostachys, Schizae.
Anemiaceae: flowering ferns; 1 genus,
Anemiaceae.
Lygodiaceae: climbing ferns; 1 genus, Lygodium; 40 species; vines.
IntroductionWhile the three clades of
Schizaeales are all .
Schizaeaceae are generally small ferns with forking fronds and a distinctive, somewhat non-fern-like, appearance.
Anemiaceae look very fern-like and are typically terrestrial or epipetric.
Lygodiaceae, or climbing ferns, look very ferny but are highly distinctive in their growth habit: the rachis of the frond is long and flexible, with indeterminate growth, so that the fronds form climbing or trailing vines.
TaxonomySmith in 2006 placed
Schizaeales in the leptosporangiate ferns, class
Polypodiopsida, with 3 families,
Anemiaceae,
Lygodiaceae, and
Schizaeaceae. Christenhusz in 2011 placed
Schizaeales in subclass
Polypodiidae, with the same three families. Christenhusz and Chase in 2014 placed all members of the
Schizaeales in a more broadly defined
Schizaeaceae, reducing the three existing families to subfamilies as Anemioideae, Lygodioideae, and Schizaeoideae, as has been done in the past. The PPG I classification in 2016 returned to the three-family definition of the order.