Fronds 7.5–37 cm tall. Stipe 3.5–20 cm long. Lamina lanceolate or ± triangular in outline, 4–25 x 1.5–10 cm essentially 2-pinnate with 9–20 pairs of pinnae, but pinnules narrowly decurrent, deeply pinnatifid; sometimes truly 2-pinnate; veins mostly running into the sinuses. Spores with densely packed spines.

Verdcourt (2003) has subdivided this taxon in subspec. A and B based on the division of the fronds, the number of pinnae, wether the veins run into the teeth or sinuses of the pinnules and on the ornamentation of the spores. Other autors (Crouch et all., 2011) believe that the various forms grade into each other and no stable set of characters has been given to substantiate subdivision.

Algeria, Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Morocco and Western Sahara, South Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda.

Terrestrial.