| Description:
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Rhizome creeping, c.4 mm thick, dark brown to black; rhizome scales sparse, shiny dark brown, base heartshaped, apex pointed, 2-3 x 1.3 mm. Fronds herbaceous. Stipe c. 45 cm long, shiny reddish yellow when dry, base dark brown to black, upper surface furrowed, with whitish, articulated hairs, below round, glabrous, base c. 3 mm thick with scales similar to the rhizome. Lamina 2 pinnatifid, ovoid in outline, tapering into a pinnate about 8 cm long apex, base not reduced in size, up to 54 x 35 cm; pinnae 18-20 pairs, partly opposite partly alternate, standing quite close to each other, the upper ones almost sessile, directed upwards, only incised, the following ones sticking out almost horizontally, now and then with a downward sloping tip, clearly petiolate and gradually more deeply incised until finally pinnately divided, linear-lanceolate in outline, apex long tapering, base short, basal pinnae longest, up to 24 x 2.5 cm; pinnules sickle-shaped, margin sparsely set with white hairs when young, up to 1.4 x 0.5 cm; veins up to 24 pairs per lobe, closely set, directed upwards, basal pair of veins anastomosing; under surface set with short white hairs, upper surface hairless; rhachis and costa as for stipe, set with hairs. Sori round, leaving the uppermost quarter of the pinnule lobe free, then set in two rows close to the median nerve, going down the sinus and joining with the sorus arch of the next pinnule; (indusiate ?). |