Rhizome erect or shortly creeping, woody; rhizome scales pale brown with wide dark brown central midrib, linear-lanceolate in outline. Fronds tufted, 0.45–2.2 m long, with gemma at base of apical pinna. Stipe straw-coloured above, chestnut towards the base, 0.27–1.25 m long, slightly roughened with sharp hard points, scaly at the base. Lamina subcoriaceous, ovate or ovate-lanceolate in outline, up to 60 cm wide, bipinnatipartite. Pinnae (8–)10–15-jugate, oblong to oblong-lanceolate in outline, 15–35(–40) x 4–12(–15) cm; stalks of pinnae 0–1.5(–3) cm long, roughened with groups of small prickles in the axils with the main rhachis; segments of pinnae 12–25-jugate, narrowly lanceolate in outline, straight or slightly curved, 1.5–6(–9.5) x 0.5–0.9(–1.1) cm, the sterile apices crenate-serrate; terminal segment up to 11 x 0.8 cm. Veins free, simple or forked, the branches entering the base of sinuses closely approximate or occasionally actually connected by a cross-vein; rhachis deeply grooved; costae and costulae without spinules. Sori extending from sinuses to within 0.5–1.5 cm of the apex; paraphyses present.

auquieri: first collected by Mr. Auquier in Nyungwe forest, Rwanda.

Closed evergreen forest on steep slopes, streamside forest with abundant cyathea manniana, Parinari excelsa forest.

See African distribution.

Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania , Uganda.

Terrestrial.