Etymology Greek: kystos, bladder + pteron, wing, which describes the pinnae. Note that the ancient Greeks used pteris to describe all ferns. The indusium looks like an inflated bladder.

Description Rhizome: short- to long-creeping, scaly.
Frond: deciduous, the stipe bases persistent, storing starch, monomorphic.
Stipe: grooved, hairy or glabrous, vascular bundles: 2, round or oblong.
Blade: 1-3 pinnate-pinnatifid, ovate-lanceolate to deltate, membranaceous to herbaceous, absent or of uniseriate, multicellular hairs in pinnae axils or of unicellular, gland-tipped hairs below.
Pinnae: anadromous, costae grooves above continuous from rachis to costae, segments serrate-dentate, veins free, simple or forked, ending at the margin.
Sori: round, in 1 row between midrib and margin, indusium: young: hood-shaped, often falling at maturity, beneath sorus on midrib side, sporangia: brown.