Shield fern

Family Dryopteridaceae. The genus comprises about 150 species (around 20 in the territory of the former USSR), mainly distributed in the temperate zone of the globe.

These are ferns 20 to 150 cm tall, with thin creeping or with thick ascending or erect rhizomes covered with scales, or with hairs and scales, and with large pinnate or repeatedly divided fronds (leaves). Sori are usually round, borne on the veins at some distance from the margin of the blade. The indusium is rounded-ovoid, attached radially, or shield-shaped, sometimes falling off early; more rarely there is no indusium.