Pteris tabularis Thunb.
Lomaria coriacea Schrad.
Lomaria cycadioides Pappe & Rawson
Lomaria dalgairnsiae Pappe & Rawson
Lomaria boryana (Sw.) Willd.
Blechnum dalgairnsiae (Pappe & Rawson) Kuhn

Rhizome erect, sometimes forming a caudex of up to 100 x 8-30 cm; rhizome scales brown with dark central stripe and paler margin, linear-lanceolte in outline, 15-50 mm long, margin entire. Fronds dimorphic, in whorls, texture leathery. Stipe 10-30(-60)cm, longer in fertile than in sterile fronds, strawcoloured, glabrous but with a few scales at the base. Sterile lamina 40-140 × 3-35 cm, pinnate, elliptic-oblanceolate in outline with a series of reduced pinnae at the base, the lowermost pinnae rudimentary; pinnae 4-20 x 1-2 cm, linear to oblong, base unequal, free or joined on the basiscopic margin to the rhachis, margins entire, glabrous above, with hair-like scales set along the costa below. Fertile lamina smaller or the same size as the sterile lamina; pinnae linear, joined directly onto the rhachis, pinnae standing at an acute angle to the rhachis and sometimes strongly inrolled. Sori linear, extending the whole length of the pinnae; indusium continuous, lacerate, 0.5-2 mm wide.

Differs from similar species by its stiff habit and leathery texture; it also has pinnae with an unequally shaped base.

tabulare: Mont tabularis in Latin, this fern was first collected on Table Mountain, Cape Town.

Montane grassland along streams or rocky outcrops, along the margins of evergreen forest, bamboo forest, disturbed forest, peat bogs & swamps, rather humid and open sites.

Africa, Madagascar and Mascarene Islands.

Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania , Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Terrestrial.