Ctenitis lanuginosa (Willd. ex Kaulf.) Copel.
Nephrodium catopteron (Kunze) Hook.
Lastrea lanuginosa (Willd. ex Kaulf.) T.Moore
Aspidium odoratum Willd.
Aspidium lanuginosum Kaulf.
Polystichum lanuginosum (Kaulf.) Keyserl.

Rhizome erect, sometimes forming a caudex up to 45 cm high; rhizome scales up to 27 × 2 mm, subentire, golden-brown, linear. Fronds tufted, arching, thinly herbaceous, up to 2 m long. Stipe up to 100 cm long, dark auburn near base, strawcoloured or green above, with scales similar to the rhizome scales at the extreme base. Lamina broadly triangular in outline, deeply 2-pinnatifid above to 4-pinnatifid at the base, with basal pinnae largest and strongly basiscopically developed, up to 1.5 × 0.64 m. Pinnules oblong, acuminate, margins entire or shallowly lobed, slightly hairy on both surfaces, more so on the costae & costules and rhachis. Sori small, round, up to 2 mm in diameter; indusia kidney-shaped, brown, sparsely hairy to subglabrous.

The erect caudex, triangular 4-pinnatifid lamina and round sori separate this species from others.

lanuginosum: slightly wooly; alluding to the slightly hairy lamina of this fern.

Deep shade along streams in evergreen forests.

Africa,also Comoro and Mascarene Islands, Madagascar, São Tomé.

Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania , Zimbabwe.

Terrestrial.