Search Results

Information None

Information Caudex c. 10 cm. in diam. and up to 4.5 m. high, erect, slender. Frond arching, herbaceous. Stipe pale-brown ventrally, dark purplish-brown dorsally, with a pair of depauperate pinnae (aphlebia) at the base and sparsely clothed when young with narrowly lanceolate castaneous scales c. 1 cm. long with paler lacerate margins. Lamina up to 2 x 0.8 m., deeply 3-pinnatifid, elliptic in outline; pinnae up to 46 x 16 cm., oblong, attenuate, pinnate into very narrowly oblong attenuate deeply pinnatifid pinnules; pinnule segments dentate, narrowly oblong, slightly falcate, acute; ventral surface glabrous; dorsal surface with pale bullate scales along the costules; rhachis pale- to dark-brown, smooth, glabrous. Sori 1–2 at the base of each pinnule segment, c. 1 mm. in diam., with paraphyses; indusium asymmetric.

Information Caudex erect, short or tall, with scales produced at the apex and on the stipe bases. Frond membranous to coriaceous, deeply 2-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate or 4-pinnatifid, glabrous to villous or tomentose on the dorsal surface; veins free. Sori borne on the veins; receptacle elongated or hemispherical, indusium basal, cup-shaped or one-sided.

Information This species has been reported from S Tanzania in Flora Zambesiaca, by Holttum in Kew Bulletin, and by Burrows in his Southern African Ferns; the editor believes all this is due because of the mention in Peter’s Flora von Deutsch-Ostafrika: 18 (1929). However, Peter only cites his own collection from Knysna (South Africa). This species has never been found north of Mt Mlanje.

Information Trunk 0.3–9 m tall, 10–15 cm in diameter, dark brown to almost black, throughout with long-decurrent appressed spiny stipe bases, in older trees the lower stem eventually smooth. Fronds 5–10 in number, to 4 m long; stipe brown, 25–90 cm long, bearing conical warts or black spines 2–4 mm long; scales medium to dark reddish brown, to 20 mm long and 6 mm wide near the base, margins fragile with irregularly projecting oblique thin-walled cells. Lamina dark green, 2-pinnate, 3-pinnatifid or 3-pinnate, 0.9–3 m long, 0.9–1.3 m wide; basal pinnae not or little reduced, long stalked; rachis spiny towards its base, with (12–)35–40 falcate pinnae on each side; largest pinnae 45–75 cm long; largest pinnules 6–13 cm long and 1–2.2 cm wide, ± glaucous beneath, basal pair of lobes free, remaining pinnules lobed almost to the costa, the lobes crenate; costules 2.5–4 mm apart; veins 10–13 pairs, lower and middle ones of large pinnules twice forked, distal ones forked or simple. Scales and hairs on pinnules: lower surface of costae at first covered by broad flat light- to mid-brown scales of all sizes, the larger ones with a dark median patch, all with fringed edges, the scales deciduous on old fronds, grading to a usually small number of short contorted hairs of variable length and narrow hair-like scales; lower surface of costules scaly and hairy as costae. Sori close to costules; indusia light brown, broadly cup-shaped with a ± permanent smooth edge or rather one-sided due to splitting; paraphyses short and slender. Fig. 2: 2, 2A, B (page 10)

Information Plants terrestrial or epilithic. Caudex slender, to 3 m tall, to 100 mm in diameter, frequently with few short side branches, densely covered by adventitious roots. Fronds to 16 per plant, caespitose, arching, to 1.8 m long; stipe greenish-brown, adaxially shallowly sulcate, to 80 mm long, to 8 mm in diameter, proximally densely set with smaller and larger scales, smaller scales sessile, irregularly branched, with glands near the point of attachment, larger scales chartaceus, bicolorous, the central region crustaceous, castaneus to atrocastaneus, nitid, margins membranous, stramineous, sessile, narrowly lanceolate-acuminate, cordate, margins closely and irregularly fimbriate, apex terminates in a castaneus seta, to 12 mm long, to 1.5 mm wide; lamina proximally anadromous, catadromous distally, ovate to elliptic, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, to 1.6 m long, to 670 mm wide, with up to 14 petiolated pinna pairs; rachis castaneus to stramineous, adaxially shallowly sulcate, sparsely set with scales similar to those on the stipe base; pinnae petiolate, petiole to 18 mm long, alternate, the basal pinna pair (aphlebia) curled, ovate, to 2-pinnate, segments thinly herbaceous, much reduced, to 170 mm long, to 110 mm wide, pinnae higher up 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, lanceolate to oblong-acuminate, to 340 mm long, to 130 mm wide, with up to 20 petiolated pinnule pairs; pinna-rachis terete, moderately scaled, scales thinly herbaceous, ferrugineus, sessile, oblong, closely and variably set with simple and branched fimbriae, apical cell crustaceous, castaneus, subulate, to 1.3 mm long, to 0.3 mm wide; pinnules sessile, firmly herbaceous, pinnatifid, linear-acuminate, to 65 mm long, to 13 mm wide, adaxially glabrous, abaxially often scaled along the costae and costules, scales chartaceus, ferrugineus, sessile, cordate, bullate, margins closely and variably set with simple and branched fimbriae, apical cell crustaceous, castaneus, subulate, to 1.6 mm long, to 0.5 mm wide; costa adaxially raised, pronounced abaxially; segments linear-acute, serrate, to 8 mm long, to 2 mm wide. Venation evident, pinnately branched in the segments, vein branches simple or forked, ending in the margin. Sori up to 3 pairs on each segment, circular, if single then inframedial on acroscopic vein branch; receptacle raised, paraphysate, paraphyses pluricellular, simple, uniseriate to pluriseriate, apical cell thin-walled, glandular; sporangium with a short 4-seriate stalk, simple, laterally attached, capsule obtriangular in lateral view, annulus complete, with (16-)18(-19) indurated annulus cells; indusium inferior, cupulate to flabellate, repand to irregularly lobed. Spores 16 per sporangium, brown, tetrahedral, trilete, tuberculate, with echinulate ridges, exospore (40-)44.46(-50) (m in diameter. Figure 25A-C.