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.

Danaea is the basal lineage in the Marattiaceae and the oldest fossils are from the Paleocene, a period where rainforests became more abundant.

It has radiated in these early rainforests and presently counts about 50 species in 3 sections: sect.

D. simplicifolia Rudge D. leprieurii Kunze D. bipinnata Tuomisto D. polymorpha Lepr.