Greek pellos, dusky, referring to the often bluish gray quality of fronds of some species in this genus.
Plants small to medium-sized, terrestrial or epipetric. Rhizomes decumbent to short-creeping, scaly. Fronds clustered. Stipes dark, shiny, glabrous, round or sometimes grooved, single vascular bundle near base. Blades 1- to 4-pinnate, usually glabrous. Pinnules sessile or shortstalked. Veins usually free. False indusia formed by modified revolute margins.
A poorly defined genus of about thirty-five species found in New Zealand, southern Africa, India, North and South America, and northeastern Spain, with the greatest number of species found in Mexico and the southwestern United States. Represented in Hawai'i by one indigenous species.