Rhizome short-creeping, 7 mm thick; rhizome scales dark brown, entire, awl-shaped, up to 5 mm. Fronds closely spaced-tufted, gemmiferous at base of terminal pinna near the apex, thinly coriaceous. Stipe up to 35 cm, stipe and rhachis set with a few brown scales. Lamina 15-48 cm × 8-20 cm, pinnate distally, 2-3 pinnatifid on the basal pair of pinnae, ovate to triangular in outline, basal pair of pinnae the longest. Pinnae ovate to lanceolate in outline, up to 11 x 4.5 cm, apex gradually tapering to a point, base unequal cuneate, incised towards the base into rhombic lobes with toothed outer margins and irregularly shallowly incised, free pinnules with (narrowly) cuneate bases, glabrous except for small lanceolate scales near the extreme base. Sori linear, situated along the veins, 4-30 mm long; indusium entire, linear, membranous.

Differs from similar species by having small plantlets or gemmae towards the frond apices.

blastophorum: bearing shoots, this fern has plantlets on the fronds.

Deep shaded floor of semi-deciduous forest, wet evergreen montane and riverine forest.

See African distribution.

Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial.