Delta Maidenhair

raddianum: named after Guiseppe Raddi (1770-1829), Italian botanist who collected in Brazil from where the type originates.

Rhizome short, creeping; rhizome scales brown, lanceolate, entire. Fronds closely spaced to tufted, thinly herbaceous, arching. Stipe up to 25 cm long, thin, shiny, dark brown to black, glabrous. Lamina 3-4 pinnate, triangular to broadly ovate in outline, 10-25 × 8-15 cm, glabrous. Rhachis and stalks black, glabrous. Pinnules persistent, 1.2 × 1 cm, obcuneate to trapeziform with straight sides, outer margin irregularly incised into rounded lobes with toothed margins, veins ending in the sinuses of the marginal serrations. Sori on the outer margins of ultimate segments, indusial flaps broadly overlapping the sori, kidney shaped to circular, c. 1.5 mm in diameter.

Native to South America, widely escaped throughout the moister regions of Africa.