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Rhizome short, erect, up to 12 mm in diameter, set with roots, rhizome scales dull brown to ferrugineous, texture papery, linear, truncate to cordate, margins wavy to irregularly toothed, irregularly set with long flagelliform outgrowths, twisted, the apex flagelliform, twisted, to 23 × 3 mm. Fronds tufted, up to 5 per plant, suberect to arching, to 94 cm long. Stipe pale green, drying stramineous, up to 49 cm long, to 9 mm in diameter, proximally adaxially flattened, shallowly sulcate higher up, densely scaled near base, moderately scaled higher up, the scales like rhizome scales but lanceolate-caudate in outline, and to 20 × 3 mm. Lamina firmly herbaceous, ovate to broadly ovate in outline, to 3-pinnate, up to 46 × 33 cm, with up to 10 pairs of stalked pinnae. Pinnae stalked, the stalk up to 9 mm long, the basal pair inequalaterally narrowly ovate in outline, to 2-pinnate, pinnae higher up lanceolate to oblong-acuminate in outline, basiscopically developed, up to 24 × 13.5 cm, opposite to alternate, spaced or overlapping, with up to 10 pairs of pinnules. Pinnules stalked, the stalk up to 3 mm long, upper surface glabrous, lower surface sparsely set with hairs and scales, the hairs occurring along the costa and veins, up to 0.65 mm long, the scales stramineous, papery to membraneous, linear to narrowly lanceolate-caudate in outline, to 3.5 × 0.35 mm. Venation pinnately branched, forked or simple near the apex, evident, ending in the teeth near the margin. Rhachis straw coloured, adaxially shallowly sulcate, narrowly winged in the pinnatifid apex, initially moderately scaled, the scales essentially similar to those on the stipe, to 6 × 1.5 mm; costae like rhachis but scales smaller to 4 × 0.8 mm. Sori circular, inframedial on the anadromous vein branches, discrete or paired, the paired ones touching at maturity. Indusium brown to ferrugineous, persistent, firmly papery, reniform, the margins strongly revolute, entire, up to 2 mm in diameter. |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Zambia (and DRC?) |
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| Growth form(s): | Terrestrial. |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Meerts, P. et al. (2026). A checklist of the vascular plants of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. PhytoKeys 277 Roux, J.P. (2003). A new Dryopteris (Pteropsida: Dryopteridaceae) species from south-central Africa Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 142 Pages 237 - 242. (Includes a picture). Roux, J.P. (2009). Synopsis of the Lycopodiophyta and Pteridophyta of Africa, Madagascar and neighbouring islands Page 122. |