Greekphlebos, vein,+ -odes, a suffix denoting likeness; the prominent veins in the fronds suggest veins.
Plants medium-sized, epiphytic or terrestrial. Rhizomes creeping, densely covered with fine, golden to reddish or light brown scales. Fronds distant, articulate. Stipes brown to straw-colored. Blades deeply pinnatifid to pinnatisect, glabrous, sometimes glaucous, sinuses rounded. Veins reticulate, forming narrow, rectangular areoles lying parallel and close to midribs, without included veins, elsewhere veins forming irregular layers of larger areoles with or without free included veinlets. Sori exindusiate, round, yellow at maturity, 1 to several rows on either side of costae, on juncture of 2 or 3 included vein tips, paraphyses absent.
A genus of about four species native to the New World Tropics and subtropics. Distinguishable from the closely related Polypodium by the double, included veins joining beneath the sori in areoles.
Represented in Hawai 'i by a single naturalized species.
