The World Flora Online

Plants perennial, terrestrial or epiphytic, with corallike, rhizoid-bearing, branched, subterranean axes. Roots absent. Aerial shoots simple or dichotomously branched; appendages leaflike or bractlike, alternate to subopposite, veinless or 1-veined, less than 1 cm. Synangia globose, of 2--3 fused, homosporous eusporangia, solitary in axils of shoot appendages, dehiscing loculicidally. Spores many, reniform, not green. Gametophytes subterranean, mycotrophic, fleshy, elongate, and branched.

Plantes terrestres ou épiphytes.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t Sporophytes': 2 n, vivaces; rhizome dichotome, sans racines, portant des rhizoïdes, muni de mycorrhizes; tiges dressées ou pendantes (individus épiphytes), anguleuses à aplaties, plusieurs fois bifurquées dichotomiquement dans le haut, vertes, actinostéliques.'Feuilles'petites, simples, squamiformes, ovales, espacées, disposées en spirale, rigides et un peu spiniformes, sans faisceau ou à faisceau très faible.'Sporanges situés à la base de la face supérieure d'appendices bifurqués de valeur foliaire ou axile non connue, 3-loculaires, déhiscents en 3 valves, à parois pluriassisiales.\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t Spores : toutes semblables, bilatérales, en forme de haricots.\n\t\t\tGamétophytes : n, bisexués, souterrains, dépourvus de chlorophylle, cylindriques, irrégulièrement bifurqués dichotomiquement, couverts de rhizoïdes brunâtres, et renfermant des champignons endophytes; anthéridies et archégones irrégulièrement dispersés à la surface du prothalle; anthéridies sphériques, faisant saillie; archégones enfoncés dans le tissu du prothalle mais pourvus d'un bec court saillant; anthérozoïdes spiralés, à nombreux cils.\n\t\t\tFamille monogénérique.

Epiphytic perennial herbs; rootless with dichotomous mycorrhizal rhizomes Leaves represented by minute subulate, scale–like, spirally arranged appendages Stems erect (in W.African species), photosynthetic, green, angular, dichotomous Leaves represented by minute subulate, scale–like, spirally arranged appendages Stems erect (in W.African species), photosynthetic, green, angular, dichotomous

Aerial stems chlorophyllose, simple or dichotomously branched produced from non-chlorophyllous mycorrhizal rootless rhizome-like horizontal axes

Terrestrial or epiphytic Leaves small, simple, scale-like, ovate, spaced, spirally disposed, rigid, somewhat spiniform with distinct or very poorly developed bundles Leaves small, simple, scale-like, ovate, spaced, spirally disposed, rigid, somewhat spiniform with distinct or very poorly developed bundles

Plants small to medium-sized, epiphytic or on rocks. Rhizomes creeping, brown, with protostele or siphonostele, bearing rhizoids; roots absent. Stems erect or pendulous, green, unbranched or dichotomously or pinnately branched; branches ridged to sulcate or complanate. Leaves small or rudimentary, with a single vein (microphylls) or lacking veins (enations), spirally or distichously alternate, sessile or subsessile, dimorphic; trophophylls scalelike and subulate-triangular, or lanceolate to narrowly ovate; sporophylls deeply bifid. Sporangia appearing solitary at or above bases of sporophylls, large, 2- or 3-lobed (sometimes interpreted as synangia of 2 or 3 unlobed sporangia), thick-walled, lacking an annulus, each lobe dehiscing longitudinally by a slit. Spores reniform, monolete, many (> 1000) per sporangium, exospore translucent, rugulate to foveolate. Gametophytes subterranean (Psilotum), non-photosynthetic, cylindrical, mycorrhizal. x = 52.