Aspidotis schimperi (Kunze) Pic. Serm.

schimperi: named after W.P. Schimper (1804-1878), German bryologist and plant collector in North africa and Arabia.

Rhizome creeping, c.5 mm in diameter, with many roots; rhizome scales brown, narrow, margin entire, apex hairpointed. Fronds closely spaced, erect, subcoracious. Stipe dark brown to almost black, up to 28 cm long, hairless but with a few brown hairs scales at base when young. Lamina 6-17 cm × 7-19 cm, roughly hexagonal to broadly triangular in outline, 4-pinnatifid to 5-pinnatifid on the lower basiscopically developed pinnae. Ultimate segments linear, narrow, c. 10 mm long, adnate and decurrent, with spaced, sharply, finely toothed margins, hairless on both surfaces. Rhachis and secondary rhachis dark brown. Sori very small, in the sinuses of the teeth of the ultimate segments; indusium small, membranous, formed from the inrolled margin.

Frequent

Angola, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.