Family PSILOTACEAE
Description: Terrestrial or epiphytic plants; rhizome creeping and branched, bearing hair-like rhizoids rather than true roots, little different in appearance from the aerial stems; aerial stems simple or branched dichotomously.
Leaves simple, small or minute and scale-like.
Sporangia clustered in groups of 2, 3 or rarely 4, to form sessile, thick-walled synangia that are borne at the base of forked fertile leaves.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 2 genera, 17 species, pantropical to southern temperate regions. Australia: 2 genera, 8 species, all States except S.A.
External links:
Wikipedia
Text by Peter G. Wilson
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the genera | |
| 1 | Stems much-branched, branching dichotomous; synangia usually composed of 3 sporangia; leaves scale-like | Psilotum |
| Stems usually unbranched; synangia composed of 2 sporangia; leaves usually at least 10 mm long | Tmesipteris |
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