Asplenium nemorale Baker
Athyrium arborescens (Bory) Sw. var. nemorale (Baker) C.Chr.
Asplenium hylophilum Hieron.
Diplazium hylophilum (Hieron.) C.Chr.
Diplazium stolzii Brause

Rhizome erect, with a short caudex up to 20 × 7(-20) cm; rhizome scales 9 x 2-5 mm, shiny bronze-brown, the edges not or narrowly dark and with few undivided trichomes. Fronds monomorphic, tufted, arching, 0.5–1.8 m tall, firmly herbaceous. Stipe up to 1m long, brown, smooth except for a few scattered, linear, dark brown scales near the base. Lamina bipinnatifid to bipinnate in upper part, tripinnatifid below, ovate to roughly elliptic in outline, up to 1.5 × 0.9 m; apical segment 7–12 x 3.5–5 cm, attenuate and crenate at the tip, lobed beneath; pinnae in 10–15 pairs, the ± 5 below the apical segment pinnatifid, 9 x 2 cm, the lobes crenate; rest of pinnae oblong to oblong-ovate, pinnate, 20–50 x 3.5–22 cm, with (7–)10–16 pairs of pinnules; pinnules triangular-lanceolate in outline, 2.5–11.5 x 1–2.7 cm, shallowly to very deeply pinnatifid according to position, narrowly acuminate and crenulate at the apex; pinna-stalks 0–1.5(–3) cm long; veins in 5-8 pairs per lobe, pinnate, bifurcate; rhachis brown, subglabrous with few scattered, twisted, brown scales, particularly about the pinnule petioles. Sori 6-8 per lobe, linear, 2-4 mm long, basal acroscopic sori frequently arranged back to back; indusium brown, entire, membranous.

Could be confused with D. zanzibaricum which differs in having smaller and more sori per lobe and a stipe base that is densely set with hair-like scales.

nemorale: belonging to a grove or woodland

Deeply shaded streambanks in montane, evergreen, wet forests.

Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania , Zimbabwe.

Terrestrial.