Lonchitis stipitata Alston

Rhizome erect or shortly creeping, woody and much branched; rhizome hairs long or short, dark brown golden or red-brown, up to 1 cm long. Fronds tufted or shortly spaced, (0.6–)1.5–2.7 m tall, subcoriaceous. Stipe sometimes purplish, up to 1.5 m long. Lamina simple in very young plants, becoming simply pinnate later, up to 1.5 x 0.9 m, variously divided, (1–)2(–3)-pinnate; uppermost segment of frond deeply pinnatifid; upper pinnae 9–14.5 x 3.5–8 cm, unequally crenate-pinnatifid, 7–10 lobed on each side of costae, the lower lobes often larger, stalked, the stalks 7–10 mm long; lower pinnae pinnatifid at apex, pinnate at base, pinnules triangular-lanceolate in outline, 2–17 x 1–6 cm, apex narrowly tapering to a point, stalked, the stalks usually 2.5–5 mm long; surfaces glabrous or with sparse hairs save for costae and costulae which are ± hairy above and beneath; rhachis and axes set with densely pale or dark brown spreading short hairs and typically (but not always) some adpressed or decumbent blackish hairs; occasionally all axes and surfaces ± glabrous. Sori elongate, crescent-shaped in deep sinuses and oblong to reniform, 3.5–4.5 mm long on subentire margins of pinnae/pinnule-lobes, up to 5 on each side.

stipitata: stipitate, having a stipe or stalks.

Wet evergreen forest, mist forest.

See African distribution.

Kenya, Tanzania .

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