The World Flora Online

Plants 40-100 cm tall. Rhizomes long creeping, black, including bases of stipes with sparse ovate-lanceolate scales. Fronds distant; stipes 20-60 cm, bases black, distally stramineous; laminae 20-50 × 10-20 cm, bases not narrowed, apices caudate with apical pinna similar to lateral ones; lateral pinnae 10-25 pairs, linear-lanceolate, 5-10 × ca. 1 cm, shortly stalked, bases rounded-truncate, lobed 1/4-1/2 toward costae, apices acuminate; segments 20-30 pairs on middle pinnae, triangular, 3-5 × 2-4 mm, apices pointed; veinlets 6-10 pairs, proximal pair anastomosing, next 0.5-1 pair running to sinus membrane. Laminae somewhat leathery, reddish when dried, subglabrous adaxially, abaxially with acicular hairs and reddish orange sessile spherical glands along veins and several membranous broadly ovate scales along costae. Sori orbicular, medial to submarginal, proximal 1 or 2 pairs of veins sterile; indusia sparsely hairy. Sporangia bearing spherical reddish orange glands on stalks. Spores sparsely minutely echinulate. 2n = 72, 144.

Aquática Terrícola Terrícola

Erva

Rhizome widely creeping, set with sparse blackish rhizome scales. Basal pairs of pinnae not reduced. Sori on veins closer to margins than costules, circular, up to 18 per lobe. Lamina up to 0.84 x 0.3 m. Plants terrestrial. Rhizome subterranean, wide-creeping, to 6 mm in diameter, irregularly branched, set with roots, spaced stipe bases and scales, scales sparsely set, chartaceous, castaneus, sessile, ovate to lanceolate, margins set with unicellular acicular hairs and clavate or elliptic gland-like cells, apex terminates in an elliptic thin-walled cell, to 6 mm long, to 1.5 mm wide. Fronds to 300 mm apart, erect, to 1.7 m long; stipe firm, proximally purple-brown, stramineous distally, adaxially sulcate, to 780 mm long, to 5 mm in diameter, proximally sparsely set with scales similar to those on the rhizome, glabrous higher up; lamina 1-pinnate, narrowly elliptic, to 800 mm long, to 450 mm wide, with up to 38 petiolated pinna pairs, basal pinnae often slightly reduced; rachis stramineous, adaxially sulcate, sulcus not open to that of the costa, densely set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular and oblong hairs, sparsely set with ferrugineous scales similar to, but smaller than, those on the rhizome; pinnae sessile or short-stalked, if stalked then to 1 mm long, herbaceous to thinly coriaceous, alternate, spaced or overlapping, linear-cuneate, to 225 mm long, to 28 mm wide, lobed to 4 mm from the costa, lobes triangular-obtuse to triangular-cuspidate, entire, adaxially variously set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular hairs along the costa, veins, and pinna margin, abaxially closely set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular hairs along the costa, veins and area between the veins, to 1.8 mm long; costa adaxially shallowly sulcate, pronounced abaxially. Venation evident, pinnately branched in the lobes, vein branches simple, with a single pair of veins from adjacent lobes anastomosing below the sinus, excurrent vein terminates in the sinus between the lobes, second vein pair terminates in the sinus or just above, free vein branches end in the lobe margin. Sori circular, medial on the veins, often also on the excurrent vein; indusium chartaceous, brown, reniform, set with unicellular acicular hairs along the margin and surface, also with scattered unicellular hairs along the margin, to 0.6 mm in diameter, and the cells oblong; receptacle nude; sporangium long-stalked, 3-seriate below the capsule, simple or with a long uniseriate trichome ending in a large globose cell on the stalk, capsule globose, with 15(-19) indurated annulus cells, epistomium (3-)4-celled, hypostomium (3-)4(-5)-celled. Spores 64 per sporangium, brown, ellipsoidal, monolete, with short perforated ridges, (46-)52.7(-58) x (30-)32.23(-38) µm. Perennial with widely spreading rhizome. Fronds erect, soft, stipe glabrous, lamina oblong-lanceolate, pinnae narrowly oblong, shallowly incised, glabrescent, basal pair of veins anastomosing well below sinus. Sori circular, to 18 per lobe, indusium densely pilose. Plants terrestrial. Rhizome subterranean, wide-creeping, to 6 mm in diameter, irregularly branched, set with roots, spaced stipe bases and scales, scales sparsely set, chartaceous, castaneus, sessile, ovate to lanceolate, margins set with unicellular acicular hairs and clavate or elliptic gland-like cells, apex terminates in an elliptic thin-walled cell, to 6 mm long, to 1.5 mm wide. Fronds to 300 mm apart, erect, to 1.7 m long; stipe firm, proximally purple-brown, stramineous distally, adaxially sulcate, to 780 mm long, to 5 mm in diameter, proximally sparsely set with scales similar to those on the rhizome, glabrous higher up; lamina 1-pinnate, narrowly elliptic, to 800 mm long, to 450 mm wide, with up to 38 petiolated pinna pairs, basal pinnae often slightly reduced; rachis stramineous, adaxially sulcate, sulcus not open to that of the costa, densely set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular and oblong hairs, sparsely set with ferrugineous scales similar to, but smaller than, those on the rhizome; pinnae sessile or short-stalked, if stalked then to 1 mm long, herbaceous to thinly coriaceous, alternate, spaced or overlapping, linear-cuneate, to 225 mm long, to 28 mm wide, lobed to 4 mm from the costa, lobes triangular-obtuse to triangular-cuspidate, entire, adaxially variously set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular hairs along the costa, veins, and pinna margin, abaxially closely set with hyaline, unicellular, acicular hairs along the costa, veins and area between the veins, to 1.8 mm long; costa adaxially shallowly sulcate, pronounced abaxially. Venation evident, pinnately branched in the lobes, vein branches simple, with a single pair of veins from adjacent lobes anastomosing below the sinus, excurrent vein terminates in the sinus between the lobes, second vein pair terminates in the sinus or just above, free vein branches end in the lobe margin. Sori circular, medial on the veins, often also on the excurrent vein; indusium chartaceous, brown, reniform, set with unicellular acicular hairs along the margin and surface, also with scattered unicellular hairs along the margin, to 0.6 mm in diameter, and the cells oblong; receptacle nude; sporangium long-stalked, 3-seriate below the capsule, simple or with a long uniseriate trichome ending in a large globose cell on the stalk, capsule globose, with 15(-19) indurated annulus cells, epistomium (3-)4-celled, hypostomium (3-)4(-5)-celled. Spores 64 per sporangium, brown, ellipsoidal, monolete, with short perforated ridges, (46-)52.7(-58) x (30-)32.23(-38) µm. Perennial with widely spreading rhizome. Fronds erect, soft, stipe glabrous, lamina oblong-lanceolate, pinnae narrowly oblong, shallowly incised, glabrescent, basal pair of veins anastomosing well below sinus. Sori circular, to 18 per lobe, indusium densely pilose.

Riverbanks, vleis and swamps. Terrestrial, in perennially wet marshes, vleis and along streams and rivers, in riparian scrub and among Phragmites, exposed or partially shaded. Not edaphically bound. River banks and other marshy areas, 100-600 m. Riverbanks, swamps and other marshy areas, from near sea level to 1300 m in the eastern districts of Zimbabwe. Terrestrial, in perennially wet marshes, vleis and along streams and rivers, in riparian scrub and among Phragmites, exposed or partially shaded. Not edaphically bound. River banks and other marshy areas, 100-600 m. Riverbanks, swamps and other marshy areas, from near sea level to 1300 m in the eastern districts of Zimbabwe.

This pantropical species is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Cape Province, Transkei, Natal, Swaziland, Transvaal, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Cameroun, Algeria, Senegal, Mafia Island, Zanzibar, Pemba and Mauritius. Also Gambia and Madagascar. Worcester to W and E Africa and Mauritius. Cape Province, Transkei, Natal, Swaziland, Transvaal, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Cameroun, Algeria, Senegal, Mafia Island, Zanzibar, Pemba and Mauritius. Also Gambia and Madagascar. Worcester to W and E Africa and Mauritius.