Danaea Sm. is a
fern genus of approximately 50 species in the eusporangiate fern family
Marattiaceae. they are small to intermediately large ferns with erect or creeping
rhizomes and usually once pinnate leaves with opposite pinnae. The fertile leaves are contracted, acrostichoid and covered below with sunken, linear
synangia. The genus
Danaea has a
Neotropical distribution, occurring from southern
Mexico through
Central America, the
Caribbean and northern
South America to
Bolivia,
Paraguay and the
Mata Atlantica in
Brazil and Northern
Argentina. There is also a
population on
Isla del Coco (
Cocos Island) in the
Pacific. Two species
Danaea carillensis (Costa Rica) and
D. simplicifolia (
Guianas,
Brazil,
Trinidad) have simple, undivided leaves, and some other species sometimes have bipinnate leaves (
D. bipinnata, D. nodosa, D. urbanii). One species
Danaea kalevala of the
Lesser Antilles was named in honour of the Finnish heroic
epic Kalevala.