Athyrium biserrulatum Christ

schimperi: named after W.P. Schimper (1804-1878), German bryologist who first collected this species.

Rhizome creeping and branching, 5-8 mm in diameter; rhizome scales reddish-brown, lanceolate, slowly tapering to a point, entire, up to 7 mm long. Fronds closely spaced, erect, herbaceous. Stipe straw coloured to pale green, pink on new fronds, up to 38 cm long, sparsely set with long, pale brown, hair-like scales, more dense so towards the base. Lamina narrowly elliptic to ovate-lanceolate in outline, 26-70 cm × 8-28 cm, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, lower 4-5 pairs of pinnae reduced in size. Pinnae 6-10 pairs, alternate, set at 80-90° to the rhachis, widest at base, apex tapering to a point. Pinnules unequaly ovate, about twice as long as broad, with acroscopic lobe often enlarged, glabrous on both surfaces, margin deeply pinnatifid to sharply serrate-dentate lobes. Rhachis pale brown, hairless but with few hairlike scales at the base of the pinnae. Sori 0.8-1.5 mm, curved, elliptic to J-shaped; indusium pale brown, erose and membranous.

Widespread in tropical and eastern S. Africa.