Greekpseudos, false,+ Phegopteris (a fern species) (phegos, beech tree,+ pteris, wing, a word applied to ferns). The "false beech fern."
Plants small to very large, terrestrial. Rhizomes decumbent or erect. Stipes usually strawcolored to brown, cross section at base reveals 2 crescent-shaped vascular bundles. Blades 2-pinnate-pinnatifid. Pinnae opposite to subopposite, sessile to stalked, basal pinnae often smaller, pinna rachises and costae round or nearly so, hairs on pinna rachises and costae unicellular, sharp-tipped, often deciduous. Pinnules more or less adnate, connected by a narrow wing. Veins free, often forked, not reaching margins. Sori exindusiate, round or oblong, medial to submedial.
A genus of about twenty species of tropical and subtropical Asia, the Pacific islands, Madagascar, the Mascarenes, Africa, and scattered Atlantic islands. Represented in Hawai 'i by a single endemic species.