6. Woodwardia J. E. Smith, Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci. (Turin). 5: 411. 1793.
狗脊属 gou ji shu
Authors: Wang Faguo, Prof. Fuwu Xing & Masahiro Kato
Plants terrestrial, of moderate to large size. Rhizome erect or ascending, sometimes creeping, stout, dictyostelic, densely scaly; scales brown, non-clathrate, basifixed. Fronds tufted, long stipitate; lamina deeply bipinnatifid, lower part often pinnate, elliptic in outline, papery or thinly leathery; pinnae pinnatifid, narrowly oblong in outline, gradually becoming narrowly triangular-ovate, sometimes stalked, glabrous, margin entire or serrulate; veins anastomosing to form a series of areoles along costae and costules, free to margin, simple or forked. Sori discrete, linear, elliptic, or crescent-shaped, occupying costular areoles, discrete, attached to outer areole-forming veins, superficial or sunken; indusia dark brown, facing toward costa, thickly papery; sporangia with long stalk, annulus of 17-24 thickened cells. Spores elliptic, perispore rugose.
About ten species: temperate to tropical areas in Asia, Central and North America, and Europe; five species in China.
