Notes

CONSERVATION Widespread; least concern (LC). This taxon differs from A. unilaterale chiefly in its erect rhizome and tufted fronds. It is also close to A. macrophlebium which is usually proliferous, and has the veins mostly unbranched. The mention of Asplenium pulchellum Hiern in P.O.A. C is probably based on this taxon. Faden felt several specimens from Meru, which he named A. suppositum, differed in the smaller, more finely toothed and more numerous pinnae, which give this plant a look different from A. inaequilaterale and he considered them distinct; they grow side by side with A. inaequilaterale in the lower Imenti forest near Meru. The type of A. suppositum, from Angola, is certainly A. inaequilaterale. A series of specimens from U 1, Mt Debasien, collected by H.D. van Someren (602, 603, 613, 614, 627) all key to this taxon but have a slightly different look to the pinnae, with 2-toothed sub-lobes. Richards 14239 from T 7 is similar. A specimen from Tanzania, Tanga District: Mtai Forest Reserve, Lovett & Hamilton 891! has a different look and feel from A. inaequilaterale, to which it seems closest. It might otherwise be close to A. christii from which it differs in obtuse pinna apices. It is a low epiphyte with scales dark brown, clathrate, narrowly ovate to triangular, to 1.2x0.5 mm. Lamina oblong, 12x3–4.5 cm. Pinnae in 6 pairs, asymmetrically ovate, the largest 1.8–2.3x1.3–1.5 cm, obtuse, margin crenualate, glabous or nearly so; terminal pinna similar to laterals. Sori 9–13 per lobe, reaching neither costa nor margin, on the branched veins and 3–5 mm long; involucre whitish, membranous, entire, to 0.4 mm wide. Epiphytic on base of tree trunks in ‘elfin’ forest, at an altitude of 1045 m.