Stenochlaena warneckei Hieron
Lomariopsis nigrescens Holttum

Rhizome long, climbing, 0.5-10 mm in diameter; rhizome scales brown to dark brown, concolorous, narrowly lanceolate in outline, apex tapering to a point, margin (sub)entire to ciliate near the apex, up to 7 × 2 mm. Fronds spaced apart, arching, thinly coriaceous, strongly dimorphous. Stipe brown, up to 45 cm long in sterile fronds, up to 32 cm long in fertile fronds, scales similar to those on the rhizome, becoming glabrous, except towards the base. Sterile lamina up to 35-68 x 12-26 cm, narrowly ovate to lanceolate in outline, imparipinnate, up to 19 pairs of pinnae; pinnae 7.5-15 x 1-2.2 cm, alternate, shortly petiolate, linear-lanceolate, apex tapering to a point, base wedge-shaped to rounded, margins finely crenate, rhachis and costae with sparse reduced linear-lanceolate scales and hairs. Fertile lamina up to 42 × 15 cm, narrowly lanceolate in outline; pinnae 7-14 x 0.4-0.8 cm, 14-20 pairs, shortly petiolate, linear, apex with a long drawn out point, base unequally wedge-shaped, rhachis brown, grooved, glabrous or with few brown scales. Sori cover the entire undersurface of the fertile pinnae.

Can be confused with Stenochlaena tenuifolia, this fern however has stif sterile pinnae with toothed margins and bipinnate fertile fronds.

warneckei: named after Otto Warnecke, a German botanist who collected the type specimen of this fern in Tanzania.

Deep shade of low-altitude evergreen forest.

Burundi, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania , Uganda, Zimbabwe.

Epiphytic, terrestrial.