| Athyriaceae | |
|---|---|
| Athyrium filix-femina | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Pteridophyta |
| Class: | Polypodiopsida/Pteridopsida (disputed) |
| Order: | Polypodiales |
| (unranked): | Eupolypods II |
| Family: | Athyriaceae Alston |
| Genera | |
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See text |
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Athyriaceae is a family of terrestrial ferns, with a cosmopolitan distribution. It has, in the past, included Cystopteris and Gymnocarpium, but those two genera are now recognized as representing a two-member clade that is a basal offshoot of the clade that includes this family, plus Woodsia, the Onocleaceae, Blechnaceae, Aspleniaceae, and Thelypteridaceae. Inversely, this family has by some been subsumed in the family Woodsiaceae, but a Woodsiaceae defined in this way may be paraphyletic if it omits the Onocleaceae and Blechnaceae (as of 2006, the evidence was not clear).[1]