Rhizome creeping, up to 4 mm in diameter; rhizome scales appressed, pale brown, entire, up to 7 mm long. Fronds closely spaced, erect or arching, herbaceous, simple, dimorphic. Stipe up to 16 cm long, pale greenish-brown, densely set with reddish-brown hair-like scales which stand out at right angles to the stipe. Sterile lamina 4-18 × 2.2-3.5 cm, narrowly oblong to elliptic, apex pointed, base wedge-shaped, sparsely set with rusty-brown hair-like scales on both surfaces more so on the underside of the midrib and along the margin. Fertile lamina up to 5 × 1.2 cm, subcircular to oblong or elliptic in outline, apex rounded, base rounded or truncate; sporangia covering the whole undersurface of the lamina but sometimes with a narrow sterile margin.

It can be distinguished from other species by having rusty brown frond scales covering the whole lamina, above and below, and a densely hairy stipe.

chevalieri: this species was first collected by a French botanist, Auguste J. Chevalier (1873-1956)

Lithophyte on moss covered boulders or rock faces along streams in deep shade of evergreen forest.

Africa, Principe, São Tomé.

Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe.

Lithophytic.