Brakes are ferns of the genusPteris. Many of them have linear frond segments, and some have sub-palmate division. Like other members of the Pteridales, the frond margin is reflexed over the marginal sori. Classes Marattiopsida Osmundopsida Gleicheniopsida Pteridopsida A fern, or pteridophyte, is any one of a group of some twenty thousand species of plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta, formerly known as Filicophyta. ... See genus (mathematics) for the use of the term in mathematics. ... Families Acrostichaceae Adiantaceae Pellaeaceae Parkeriaceae Pteridaceae Vittariaceae The Pteridales are ferns that have their sori in linear strips under the edge of the leaf tissue, usually with the edge of the lamina reflexed over. ...
"Brake" has often been confused with "bracken". The relationship between the two words is uncertain. If they are related, then brake is a diminution of bracken. Species Pteridium aquilinum Pteridium caudatum Pteridium latiusculum and about 7-8 other species Brackens (Pteridium) are a genus of about ten species of large, coarse ferns, in the family Hypolepidaceae. ...
Some of these ferns are popular in cultivation as houseplants. These smaller species are often called table ferns.