The genus Woodsia belongs to the Woodsiaceae family and includes 43 species, distributed in temperate and cold areas of the northern hemisphere. Woodsia are rupicolous or terrestrial, drought resistant. Clustered fronds are herbaceous, lanceolate, once-pinnate or once-pinnate bipinnatifid, covered with hair or scales. Indusia are characteristic, they are located under sori, surrounding the receptacle, and deeply laciniate, like a ruff of hair.