Notholaena rawsonii Pappe

Rhizome creeping, c. 2.5 mm in diameter; rhizome scales linear in outline, margins lacerate to ciliate, pale brown, up to 2 mm long, blackish brown. Fronds monomorphic, closely spaced, about 15 cm long, erect to arching, subcoriaceous. Stipe up to 7.5 cm long, brown, wiry, set with pale hairs when young, becoming hairless with age. Lamina 2-pinnatifid to sometimes 2-pinnate, linear-elliptic in outline, 8-27 x 1.2-2.2 cm; pinnae about 20 pairs, widely spaced, oblong-ovate in outline, the largest in the middle about 1 x 0.7 cm, slightly reduced towards the base and gradually becoming much reduced towards the apex with a very small terminal pinna, variously lobed, lobe margin entire, set with dense cover of reddish hairs below, subglabrous above; venation free, obscure; rhachis as for stipe, but rarely becoming hairless. Sori marginal, discrete, hidden under the reddish hairs below: exindusiate.

rawsonii: named after Sir W. Rawson (1812-1899), naturalist and Colonial Secretary at the Cape.

Base of boulders and rock crevices, usually on granite, in hot, arid semidesert areas along the west coast of the region.

See African distribution.

Namibia, South Africa.

Lithophytic, terrestrial.