A sporophyll is a leaf that bears sporangia.

The female cones are open, with sporophylls 13-25 cm long, with two to six ovules per sporophyll.

The female cones are open, grey with orange hairs, with each sporophyll containing 6-8 ovules.

Sporangia are distinctively borne in the axil or on the adaxial surface of the sporophyll.

The female cones open, with 13-22 cm long sporophylls with 2-4 ovules per sporophyll on a lanceolate triangular lamina with an apical spine.

The plants are heterosporous (megaspores and microspores), and have structures called ligules, scale-like outgrowths near the base of the upper surface of each microphyll and sporophyll.

The genus is distinctive and not at all like the common conception of a fern; the barren fronds (trophophylls) are grass-like, and the spore-bearing fertile frond (sporophyll) is similar, but with a small, pinnate fertile segment at its apex.