Drynaria (Bory) J.Sm.
Large epiphytic fern of "bird's nest" habit, sometimes terrestrial or rupestral. Rhizome stout, fleshly, dictyostelic, creeping, densely clothed with slender, red-brown, ciliate-dentate, peltate-based scales with a mass of fibrous roots. Fronds not functionally articulate to rhizome, of 2 types: base or nest fronds sessile, ovate or orbicular, shallowly lobed, scariose and detritus-collecting, midrib and costae prominent, not articulate, venation similar to the foliage leaves; foliage leaves stalked, deeply pinnatifid with a few large, adnate, oblique segments articulate to the rachis, or, pinnate with many articulate, +/- deciduous, free pinnae; veins conspicuous, main veins or costules oblique to costa, cross veins distinct and regular or lacking in pinnate species, veins forming numerous regular areoles with few included free veinlets; a small gland present near the axils of most costate in beneath the axil in pinnate species. Sori small, numerous, irregularly of in 2 rows between each pair of main veins, or in a single impressed row either side of the costa in pinnate species, at the intersection of veins, on most or upper pinnae of fertile foliage fronds, rarely on the lobes of the base fronds, exindusiate, paraphyses absent or present in the pinnate species; sporangia stalked, annulus longitudinal, interrupted, of c.13 thickened cells. Spores monolete, colourless, spinulose to smooth.
Sect. Drynaria: Foliage fronds pinnatifid; sori +/- superficial in a several rows wither side of the costa.
Sect. Poronema: Foliage fronds pinnate; sori impressed in a single row either side of the costa.
Species in Papuasia
Foliage fronds pinnatifid with few broadly adnate lobes; sori superficial, scattered or 2 regular rows between each paif of main veins
|2a.||Scales soft, narrowed gradually from base to apex, c.2 cm long; plants large; sori in 2 regular rows between adjacent main veins||D. quercifolia|
|Scales stiff, narrowed abruptly above the base, the apical part soon falling, shorter; plants smaller; sori in 2 irregular rows between adjacent main veins with others interspersed||D. sparsisora|