Elaphoglossum J. Sm.

Small to medium-size epiphytes or subepiphytes, rarely terrestrial or, lithophytic. Rhizome short- to long-creeping, bearing roots ventrally and fronds in 2 dorsal row, sometimes in several rows of radiallyarranged, dictyostelic with a large vental strand producing root traces and a single or several smaller dorsal strands, or radially arranged, large overlapping leafgaps with leaf-traces of several strands arranged in a ring, scales on young parts thin, narrow or broad, +/- cordate, concolorous, dark or pale, the margins bearing short teeth or hairs of 1 - several cells, often glandular. Stipes long or short, +/- terete, with 2 continuous aerophores, articulate or subarticulate to terete scaly phyllopodia, vascular bundles in a simple open ring, the 2 adaxial bundles larger, lamina simple, entire, mostly thick and leathery, the margin often thin and colourless, strongly costate, the costa prominent below, lamina variously paleate or glabresent; veins mostly immersed free, simply or mostly 1 - 2-times forked and parallel almost to the margin, terminating in a thickened hydathode, sometimes connected by an intramarginal vein at their tips, rarely copiously anastomosing; fertile fronds often longer, contracted and with longer stipes. Sporangia acrostichoid, entirely covering the lower surface of the lamina except for a thin decoloured margin, exindusiate, paraphyses lacking, annulus longitudinal, interrupted, of c.12 thickened cells. Spores monolete, brown, with a thick folded perispore.

Species in Papuasia