[2] The plants have short-lived spores formed in sporangia lacking an annulus, and borne on a stalk that splits from the leaf blade; and fleshy roots.

Ophioglossum malviae from the Western Ghats in India has been characterized as the world's smallest terrestrial pteridophyte with plants typically 1–1.2 cm in size.

In some classifications, they were placed in a separate division, Ophioglossophyta, but molecular phylogenetic studies have shown the Ophioglossales to be closely related to the Psilotales, and both are placed in the class Ophioglossidae.

In the molecular phylogenetic classification of Smith et al. in 2006, Ophioglossales, in its present circumscription, was placed in the class Psilotopsida, along with the order Psilotales.

[6] The linear sequence of Christenhusz et al. (2011), intended for compatibility with the classification of Chase and Reveal (2009),[7] which placed all land plants in Equisetopsida,[8] made it a member of subclass Ophioglossidae, equivalent to Smith's Psilotopsida.