The Fern Family
Ferns are plants that contain lignin (wood) and reproduce using spores. Lignin is the building chemical of wood allow a plant to grow tall and stiff and have the tubes to transport water and nutrients, xylem and phloem.
The ferns that most people know, those that are frilly, are just one part of the entire fern family.
There are about 11,000 species of ferns worldwide.
Here is the family tree of ferns.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteridophyte_Phylogeny_Group
All vascular plants are classified as tracheophytes. All plants that have lignin are tracheophytes. Algae is not a tracheophyte. It is a single cell plant. Moss is not a tracheophyte as it does not have lignin. This is why moss only grows as tall as carpet, no material that is structurally strong to be taller than carpet.
From tracheophytes, there are two branches, euphyllophytes and Lycopodioposa.
Lycopodioposa is the original fern from 300-400 million years ago, the first land plants. Lycopodioposa is also known as club mosses.
Euphyllophytes is another classification to separate the remainder of 'ferns' from spermatophytes which are seed plants.
The rest of the fern family start with Polyposiopsida. There are four different groups of fern plants.
Equisetidae is the fern group also known as horsetails. They are also one of the original ferns from about 300 million years ago. There are only 15 species of horsetails in the world today. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jse.12229) There are 9 species in Northeastern and Central North America.
Ophioglossidae is the fern group that has whisk ferns, grape ferns, adder's-tongues and moonworts.
Marattiidae is the fern group that contain the large ferns. Some ferns grow as tall as 9 meters. Some of these ferns are called Tree ferns.
Polypodiiae has all the other ferns under this group. This group would include the favorite interior ferns the Boston fern and Rabbit Foot's fern, and all those 'frilly' ferns.
P.S. Note: Asparagus fern is NOT a fern. It is a member of asparagus fern.