Flora of North America species comparison

not whitish pruinose, slender to moderately stout, to 6 mm diam., intensely sweet, licorice-flavored;

scales concolored, brown or slightly darker near point of attachment, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, symmetric, margins entire.

long- to short-creeping, branched or not, bearing scales and few to numerous roots, usually dictyostelic.

to 75 cm.

monomorphic to dimorphic, circinate in bud.

usually slender, 0.5–2 mm diam.

usually articulate at base [rarely nonarticulate, as in Loxogramme], lacking scales or sometimes scaly, with usually 3 vascular bundles.

lanceolate-ovate to oblong, pinnatifid, widest near middle or just below, to 16 cm wide, herbaceous, rarely slightly leathery;

rachis sparsely scaly to glabrescent abaxially, puberulent adaxially;

scales linear, usually less than 3 cells wide.

simple to often pinnatifid, pinnatisect, or pinnate, infrequently more divided;

rachis grooved or not adaxially.

linear to oblong, less than 12 mm wide;

margins serrate;

apex acute to attenuate;

midrib puberulent adaxially.

free (and simple to several times forked) to often anastomosing in complex systems, areoles with or without included veinlets.

midway between margin and midrib or slightly closer to midrib, usually less than 3 mm diam., circular to oval when immature.

borne abaxially on veins, round to oblong, occasionally elongate, rarely marginal, rarely covering surface;

paraphyses present or absent;

sporangia with stalk of 2 or 3 rows of cells;

indusia absent.

less than 58 µm, verrucose, with surface projections less than 3 µm. 2n = 74.

usually transparent or yellowish (rarely greenish), all 1 kind, bilateral, monolete [rarely trilete, as in some Loxogramme], surface most often smooth, tuberculate, verrucose, or granulate, occasionally spiny, 64 per sporangium (spores globose and 32 per sporangium in apogamous spp.).

green, aboveground, cordate or elliptic, glabrous or sometimes glandular;

archegonia and antheridia borne on lower surface, antheridia 3-celled.

free.

absent.

on blade absent, or petiole, rachis, costae, and sometimes blade tissue usually bearing hairs (these often septate and with reddish crosswalls) and/or scales.