7. Neurodium Fée, 4: 201. 1850.
Ribbon ferns [Greek neuron, nerve, and -ium, resemblance; veinlets are embossed]
Clifton E. Nauman
Paltonium C. Presl
Plants epiphytic. Stems short-creeping, branched, 2--4 mm diam., not whitish pruinose; scales bicolored, lanceolate, somewhat clathrate, margins dentate. Leaves essentially monomorphic, tufted, narrowed toward apex, to 45 cm. Petiole articulate to stem, greenish, round in cross section, grooved at base. Blade linear to lanceolate-elliptic, simple, not glaucous, glabrous, margins entire. Veins obscure, in irregular areoles that are generally longer than wide and parallel to costa, included veinlets 1--2, simple or forked, free. Sori in nearly continuous, nearly marginal band (coenosorus) in distal 1/2 of blade, sometimes also with 1--3 separate oblong to circular sori proximally; indument filamentous. Spores minutely tuberculate. x = 37.
Species 1 (1 in the flora): tropical, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America.