Aspidium striatum Schumach.
Dryopteris striata (Schumach.) C.Chr.
Thelypteris striata (Schumach.) Schelpe
Polipodium pallidivenium Hook.
Dryopteris hemitelioides Christ.

Rhizome up to 5 mm. in diameter, widely creeping, rhizome scales dark-brown, ovate in outline, apex gradually tapering to a sharp point, margin entire, up to 2 mm. long. Frond erect, spaced up to 15 cm. apart, non-proliferous, firmly herbaceous. Stipe up to 90 cm. long, pale-brown, becoming very dark at the base, glabrous. Lamina up to 77 x 25 cm, 2-pinnatifid, narrowly oblong-ovate in outline, acute, the basal pinnae not reduced; pinnae up to 21 x 2.5 cm., narrowly oblong or attenuate in outline often somewhat contracted towards the base, incised more than 1/2-way to the costa into oblong to narrowly oblong often slightly falcate subacute lobes up to 6 mm. broad, usually with more than 18 pairs of veins per lobe, the basal pair anastomosing below the sinus, the sub-basal pair reaching the sinus, glabrous ventrally except for a pilose costa, densely to thinly pilose on the costa, costules, veins and lamina dorsally. Rhachis mostly glabrous with age but thinly pilose at first with stiff white hairs. Sori circular, up to 35 per pinna lobe, contiguous at maturity, borne 1/2-way between the costule and margin; indusium c. 0.5 mm. in diameter, thinly pilose.

May be confused with C. interruptus which has less veins per lobe (6-13) and pinnae that are incised only half way to the costa.

Papyrus swamp and swamp forest.

Widespread in tropical Africa

Benin, Burkina Fasso, Burundi, Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania .

Terrestrial.