Latin asplenum, spleenwort; in ancient Greece the plants were believed to cure spleen diseases.

Terrestrial, epipetric, or epiphytic, small to large. Rhizomes short and erect to long-creeping. Fronds clustered to remote. Stipes short to long, often dark and shiny when glabrous, adaxially flattened to grooved, sometimes with green ridges adaxially, in cross section with 2 C-shaped to elliptic vascular bundles, joining back-to-hack to form an X shape, scales clathrate. Blades simple to very dissected; pinnae, if present, short petiolate. Veins free. Sori single, long and narrow, on veins, usually on distal branch. Indusia attached on sides of vein, usually long and narrow with short, tapering ends. Sporangia long-stalked, stalk uniseriate.