Plants small to medium-sized, terrestrial or aquatic (Ceratopteris) ferns. Rhizomes erect to long-creeping, scales sparse, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or narrow. Fronds usually erect, sometimes drought-tolerant, curling up when dry. Stipes green, dark brown, or black, glossy. Blades 1-to 4-pinnate, palmate, or pedate. Veins free, or joining at margins, forked, parallel. Sori superficial and linear along veins, or short-linear along margins at vein tips, or long-linear along marginal commissural veins. Indusia absent, sporangia often borne on undersides of recurved, revolute, or reflexed, often lighter colored, membranous or coriaceous leaf margins, forming false indusia.

The boundaries of this family are a matter of diverse opinion. Various authors scatter its genera among other families including Adiantaceae, Cheilanthaceae, Hernionitidaceae, Parkeriaceae, and Sinopteridaceae, and the genera included within these various families vary. Here the genera are treated as belonging to a more inclusive family.

A family of about forty genera with about 1,000 species worldwide, represented in Hawai'i by seven genera.