Osmundaceae, the royal fern family, the only family of the fern order Osmundales. A primitive group consisting of three present-day genera of large ferns—Osmunda, Todea, and Leptopteris—the family contains about 20 species; 5 to 10 extinct genera date from the Late Permian Period (about 260 million to 251 million years ago). Thamnopteris and Zalesskya are the earliest known members of the family. The Osmundaceae family is characterized by spore-producing structures (sporangia) that are either scattered or in clusters (sori) on the lower sides of leaflets (pinnae) or on both sides of special fertile regions of some leaves (fronds), but the sori are without the membranous covering (indusium) found in many other fern families. The genera are distinguished by the disposition of the sporangia and sori.
Osmunda, with about 12 species distributed in wet areas from Canada and Europe into the tropics, has sporangia on special fertile pinnae or on modified separate fertile leaves. It includes royal fern, cinnamon fern, and interrupted fern.
The genus Todea, represented by two species, T. barbara of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand and T. papuana of New Guinea, has sporangia on the backs of ordinary green pinnae.
Leptopteris, with six species distributed in New Guinea, Polynesia, and New Zealand, has sporangia positioned as in Todea, but its thin, filmy leaves are only two cell layers thick.
Economically, the roots and rhizomes (horizontal stems) of Osmunda species are the source of a fibre (osmundine, or Osmunda fibre) used as a growing medium for orchids and other epiphytes. The cinnamon fern and the interrupted fern are popular as greenhouse plants and as garden ornamentals.