Aspidium luctuosum Kunze
Polystichum lobatum (Huds.) Bastard var. luctuosum (Kunze) H.Christ

Rhizome suberect; rhizome scales up to 15 × 2 mm, margin entire, shiny, dark brown, narrowly lanceolate. Fronds tufted, arching, firmly herbaceous to coriaceous. Stipe up to 30 cm long, pale to mid-brown, with dark brown to almost black scales of two kinds. Lamina lanceolate to narrowly ovate in outline, 2-pinnate to 2-pinnatifid, with basal pinnae not or only slightly reduced, up to 45 × 19 cm. Pinnae 12-15 pairs, shortly petiolate, alternate, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, somewhat falcate, pinnate to pinnatifid. Pinnules ovate to oblong, obtuse, margins serrate-aristate, base unequally cuneate, upper surface subglabrous, lower surface set with scattered hair-like scales; acroscopic basal pinnule enlarged, parallel to the rhachis. Rhachis pale brown with black hairlike scales. Sori small, round, c.1 mm in diameter; indusia round, entire, membranous, dark brown with pale margins.

This fern has dark scales on the stipe and rhachis, the fronds are compact and have a leathery texture.

luctuosum: sorrowful, mourning; hinting at the blackened appearance of the fronds due to the black scales on the stipe and rhachis.

In dark shady ravines, along streams in evergreen or semi-deciduous forest, in riverine forest; often on dolomitic limestones.

Southern Africa, Madagascar, Réunion.

Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe.

Lithophytic, terrestrial.