[1] The Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I) uses this genus name,[1] while other sources use Drynaria to include Aglaomorpha.

They are deeply lobed or pinnate, winged, and bear sori (structures producing and containing spores) on the bottom surfaces.

[3] The collected debris decompose into humus, providing the plants with nutrients it would otherwise not have received from being suspended above the ground.

The tipmost cell divides repeatedly by cross-walls, forming a broad spatulate (spoon-shaped) prothallial plate.

This eventually results in the formation of a notch at the anterior edge of the prothallus, giving it a roughly heart-shaped appearance (cordate).

[8][10][11] Aglaomorpha also naturally exhibits apospory, the production of a gametophyte not from spores, but directly from the vegetative cells of the sporophytes.

[16] In the 19th century, Indigenous Australians were documented by the Norwegian explorer Carl Sofus Lumholtz to have hunted pythons regularly during the winter months by climbing up to individuals of A. rigidula.

[17] The large rhizome mass of Aglaomorpha can also serve as growing substrates for other plants like the ribbon fern (Ophioglossum pendulum).

[18] Due to their ability to preserve moisture and persistence even after death, the nest leaves of Aglaomorpha are also fertile hosts to a large number of water-borne fungi.

[8][10] Aglaomorpha are also considered endangered in some areas (like in New South Wales, Australia), due to threats of habitat loss and low population numbers.

Named Drynaria callispora, it comes from the Piacenzian age of the Pliocene epoch (about 3.6 to 2.5 million years ago).

[30] Outside the genus, Protodrynaria takhtajani from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary of Kursk Oblast, Russia shows some affinities to Drynaria but only distantly.

The only other reasonably convincing fossil remains of drynarioids aside from D. callispora was a specimen named Polypodium quercifolia recovered in 1985 from the Late Miocene (23.03 to 5.332 million years ago) of Palembang, Indonesia.