Terrestrial ferns. Rhizome forming a single arborescent trunk, without scales, hairy. Lamina 1–4 pinnate; venation free, forked. Sori borne on segment margins at the end of veins. Sporangia enclosed by a membranous inner indusium and small reflexed lamina lobes. Spores trilete.

Contains about 5 genera and around 50 species.

Dicksonia L'Hér.

Tree-like terrestrial ferns with a thick or thin rhizome covered with matted growths of old stipe bases, bristly hairs and interwoven roots which build up the bulk of the girth and with dense masses of rust-brown hairs among the crown. Fronds spreading regularly from the crown, all of one kind, evergreen; lamina often slightly prickly. Sori marginal on pinnules, each protected by a 2-lobed indusium, and on the outer portion of the reflexed margin of the pinnule.

Contains about 25 species in Australasia, Polynesia and Mexico. They are long-lived and moderately slow-growing.