Asplenium aethiopicum

Description

Plants 25-45 cm tall.Rhizome short,erect to shortly creeping,scaly;scales dark reddish brown to black,narrowly triangular with a long filiform apical tail.Fronds caespitose;stipe 5-15(-22) cm,adaxially grayish green and sulcate,abaxially dark brown to black,with many reddish to dark brown,narrowly triangular scales with a long filiform apex;lamina narrowly ovate to narrowly triangular,10-28 × 4.5-8 cm,apex acuminate,pinnate-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate;pinnae 10-15 pairs,subopposite or alternate,lower 1 or 2 pairs slightly reduced,subsessile,trullate-rhomboid with 1 or 2 (almost) free pinnules at base,2.5-4.5 × 1-2.5 cm,base asymmetrical,broadly cuneate,apex acuminate;pinnules 2-4 pairs,obtrullate-elliptic or subflabellate,4-12 × 2-5 mm,margin dentate,lateral sides entire,apex obtuse.Venation subflabellate,obvious abaxially,veins slender and forked,not reaching margin,costa grooved adaxially.Fronds leathery,adaxially dark green when dry and often grooved,abaxially brownish green,with reddish brown,fibrillose scales,subglabrous when old;rachis green but often becoming dark toward base abaxially,adaxially sulcate and densely scaly with fibrillose scales.Sori 2-5 per segment,linear,3-8 mm,median on subtending veins;indusia grayish yellow,linear,membranous,entire,opening toward major veins or to costa,persistent.Plants polyploid,sexual or agamosporous.