Dryopteris pentheri (Krasser) C. Chr.

pentheri: named after Arnold Penther (1865-1931)

Rhizome creeping, becoming erect at the growing tip, up to 300 × 30 mm; rhizome scales straw- to rust-coloured, narrowly ovate to linear-oblong, up to 37 × 6 mm, margins with long twisted outgrowths, apex thread-like, twisted. Fronds tufted to closely spaced at rhizome apex, erect to arching, up to 1.8 m long, herbaceous. Stipe up to 49 cm long, pale brown above, chestnut-coloured below, with straw- to rust-coloured scales, thread-like to narrowly lanceolate, up to 40 × 7 mm, denser near the base. Lamina up to 78 × 64 cm, ovate to triangular in outline, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, up to 16 pairs of pinnae, spaced below and somewhat overlapping near the lamina apex. Pinnae up to 32 × 19 cm, forming an angle of 70-80° from the rhachis, usually not reduced and basiscopically developed, basal pair inequilaterally ovate to narrowly ovate in outline. Pinnules: basiscopic pinnule shorter than the 2-3 adjacent pinnules on basal pinnae; ultimate segments ovate to oblong-obtuse, lobed, margins serrate, glabrous on both surfaces but with a few minute hairs and scales along the costules and costae, costules narrowly winged for most of the length. Rhachis straw-coloured with a few straw-to rust-coloured scales similar to but smaller than those on the stipe, narrowly winged towards the apex. Sori round, c. 1.8 mm in diameter, medial on the veins; indusia kidney-shaped, margin entire or wavy, persistent, pale brown, up to 1.6 mm in diameter, glabrous.

Southern subtropical Africa, tropical Africa, also known from SaonTomé and Madagascar.