Erect Spleenwort

erectum: erect, upright; although the larger fronds are often arching.

Rhizome erect, up to 13 mm thick; scales dark brown, entire to subentire, up to 7 mm long. Fronds not proliferous, tufted, erect to arching. Stipe subglabrous with sparse scales towards the base, up to 9 cm long, matt-grey-brown. Lamina variable, 17-40 cm × 2.5-5 cm, narrowly elliptic in outline, pinnate to 2-pinnatifid with decrescent basal pinnae. Pinnae variable, up to 3 × 1 cm, up to 30-45 pairs; margins irregularly crenate, incised less than 1/2 way to the midrib; midrib forming the lower margin of the pinnae for some distance; apex obtuse to acuminate, basal acroscopic lobe well developed and free, glabrous. Sori 6-15, linear to oval, 1-2 mm long; indusium entire.

Bioko, Burundi, Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Soa Tomé, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascan region