Cheilanthes farinosa (Forssk.) Kaulf.
Pteris farinosa Forssk.
Allosorus farinosus (Forssk.) C.Presl.
Cassebeera farinosa (Forssk.) J.Sm.
Aleuritopteris afra Pic. Serm.
Aleuritopteris aethiopica Saiki
Pteris decursiva Forssk.

Rhizome erect to shortly creeping, up to 10 mm in diameter; rhizome scales ovate to lanceolate in outline, 7-10.5 mm in length, dark-brown to golden, margins pale, entire, apex often gland-tipped and with marginal glands. Fronds 3-20, tufted, erect or arching, up to 40(-120) cm long, herbaceous or thinly coriaceous. Stipe 5-55 cm long, black to castaneous, shiny; stipe scales confined to lower part or sometimes scattered, 4-13 x 1.6-4(-6) mm, mostly very narrowed to hair-tip, brown to golden. Lamina 2 to 3-pinnatifid, lanceolate to narrowly ovate in outline, 12-54 × 5-18 cm; pinnae 5-25 pairs, lanceolate or narrowly triangular in outline, lower pinnae more or less basiscopically developed, upper pinnae decurrent, 0.5-12 x 0.2-5 cm, glabrous, dark matt green above, covered with a white or sometimes pale, yellow powder beneath; ultimate lobes linear-oblong to lanceolate in outline, apex rounded, margins minutely toothed; rhachis, costae, costules shiny black and glabrous. Sori small, marginal, in discrete or continuous clusters; indusium small, semi-transparent, entire to variously lacerate.

The powdery underside makes it easy to distinguish this fern from other species. A. welwitschii has creeping rhizome and a brown stipe.

farinosa: mealy, referring to the powdery substance on the undersurface of the leaves.

In various forest communities, woodland, streamsides, swampy areas, roadside banks, ravines, steep wet rock slopes and lava cliffs, mossy rocks, open grassland in spray of waterfalls.

Africa, Comoro Isl., Madagascar, Réunion, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Socotra, Yemen.

Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial.