Rhizome short, erect, 2-4 mm in diameter; rhizome scales linear in outline, margin entire, up to 6 mm long, castaneous, shiny. Fronds monomorphic, tufted, up to 17.5 cm long, erect to slightly arching, softly herbaceous. Stipe thin, filiform, 1-3 cm long, reddish to cataneous, set with pale, ferrugineous or white glandular hairs, c. 0.5 mm long and with concolorous pale brown to castaneous lanceolate scales of 3-4 mm long at the base. Lamina deeply 2-pinnatifid to 2-pinnate, oblong to oblong-elliptic in outline, basal pinnae reduced in size, 7.5-14 x 2.5-5.3 cm; pinnae 7-8 pairs, oblong-deltate in outline, apex rounded, up to 2.7 x 2.1 cm; pinnules oblong in outline, apex rounded, shallowly lobed with marginal glandular hairs, 0.6-1 x 0.25-0.5 cm, concolorous green, sparsely set with whitish hairs on both surfaces; rhachis and costae reddish-brown, set with spreading capitate hairs similar to those of the stipe on both surfaces. Sori marginal, discrete, set beneath the slightly inrolled margin; indusium absent.

nielsii: named after Mr. Niels Jacobsen, nature conservator, ecologist and herpetologist, who discovered this fern in the Transvaal.

On rocky hillsides around the base of boulders and on rock ledges, in shade or partial sun.

See African distribution.

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa.

Lithophytic, terrestrial.