Athyrium newtonii (Bak.) Diels

newtonii: named after Francisco X.O. de A. Newton (1864-1909)who collected the type specimen from West Africa.

Rhizome erect, usually up to 5 mm in diameter, sometimes forming a small caudex of 15 × 1.5(4) cm; rhizome scales pale brown, lanceolate, entire, up to 7 mm long. Fronds tufted, arching, herbaceous. Stipe straw coloured, up to 50 cm long, about half as long as the lamina, glabrous above, sparsely set with scales similar to those on the rhizome towards the base. Lamina narrowly ovate-lanceolate in outline, 22-60 cm × 12.5-35 cm, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, basal pinnae slightly or not reduced in size. Pinnae 9-18 pairs, opposite to alternate, set at 90° to the rhachis, lanceolate in outline, apex shortly tapering to a point; basiscopic pinnules slightly longer throughout the lamina. Pinnules bluntly ovate-deltate, about twice as long as broad, glabrous on both surfaces, margin deeply pinnatifid to serrate lobes, with acroscopic lobes more developed. Rhachis pale brown, hairless but with few hairlike scales at the pinna junction above. Sori up to 1(2) mm long, elongate, curved or J-shaped; indusium brown, subentire.

Central and tropical Africa to eastern S. Africa, Madagascar.