Dryopteris callolepis C.Chr.
Nephrodium antarcticum Baker

Rhizome erect to suberect, short, closely branched, up to 1 cm in diameter; rhizome scales ferrugineous to pale brown, often bicolorous, up to 9 x 3 mm, lanceolate in outline, margin subentire. Fronds tufted, arching, herbaceous. Stipe up to 40 x 0.45 cm, straw-coloured, darker near the base, with scales similar to rhizome but often with a dark brown centre. Lamina up to 65 × 35 cm, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, ovate to lanceolate in outline. Pinnae in up to 17 pairs, up to 85 x 15 cm, stalked, narrowly ovate to oblong in outline, apex tapering to a point, basal pinnae unequally triangular with the basiscopic pinnules much larger. Ultimate lobes narrowly ovate to oblong-obtuse, up to 18 x 9 mm, upper surface hairless or with sparse glands along the veins, lower surface sparsely to moderately set with glands, often also with hairs and sparse scales, margins deeply serrate-aristate. Rhachis greenish to straw-coloured, narrowly winged towards the apex, often set with glands and with a few pale brown scales similar to those on the stipe, up to 4 x 2 mm. Sori, round, discrete at maturity, up to 1.2 mm in diameter, 1-4 per lobe; indusium brown, entire to erose, subcircular to kidney-shaped, up to 1.2 mm in diameter, often glandular along the margin.

Can be seperated from other species by the sharply serrate-aristate lobe margins, and basal pinnae that are the largest and basiscopically developed. It is restricted to higher areas

antarticus: of the South Pole region, beyond 45° S; type specimen was collected on the Island of St. Paul.

Moorlands, montane grasslands, giant heath zone and bamboo zone, shaded forest floors, base of cliffs, among boulders.

Africa, Réunion, St. Paul Island, Amsterdam Isl. in the South Atlantic.

Dem. Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania , Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Lithophytic, terrestrial.