Rhizome erect, to 10 cm long, 1 cm diameter, covered with long chestnut hairs. Fronds tufted, 0.7–2 m tall. Stipes straw-coloured, 30–75 cm long, with short and long hairs but eventually ± glabrous. Lamina ovate, ovate-elliptic or obovate in outline, pinnate or 2-pinnatifid, 0.4–1.05 x 0.2–0.65 m, hairy on both sutfaces. Pinnae in 10–16 pairs, lanceolate in outline, 8–40 cm long according to position, distinctly stalked, apex tapering to a point, lobes up to about 25 pairs, 0.4–3 cm long (save lowest), ovate to oblong-triangular in outline, apex rounded to pointed, becoming smaller until apex of pinna is entire; basal lobes of pinna twice as long as largest of rest and with stronger costae; lobes of pinnae crenulate. Sori oblong- reniform in outline, in sinuses of pinna-lobes (± linear) and along margins of lobes in all but uppermost, the largest lobes with 8–18 in total excluding that in sinus, or ± continuous along whole pinna margin.

Edge of swamp forest and swampy grassland on sandy lake deposits.

See African distribution.

Burundi, Tanzania , Uganda.

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