Tectaria gemmifera (Fée) Alston

gemmifera: bearing gemma; the fronds of this species are often bearing buds or plantlets.

Rhizome erect, up to 2 cm in diameter; rhizome scales dark brown with paler margins, lanceolate in outline, entire, tapering to a point, up to 9 mm long. Fronds tufted, arching, thinly herbaceous, up to 1.8 m long, with proliferating buds on rhachis, costae and costules on the upper surface. Stipe 30-75 cm long, straw-coloured to brown, shiny, thinly set with minute white hairs and with scales similar to those on the rhizome at the base. Lamina 30-100 × 23-80 cm, ovate-triangular in outline, 2-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate with long pinnatifid terminal segment, basal pinnae longest and strongly developed basiscopically, sparsely set with minute white hairs on both surfaces, denser on costae and costules and veins below. Ultimate segments oblong-lanceolate, falcate, margins crenate or incised into rounded lobes. Sori up to 2 mm in diameter, round, in regular rows on both sides of the costules; indusia kidney-shaped, c. 1 mm in diameter, brown, membranous.

Widespread in E. tropical Africa, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa.

Tectaria gemmifera, the snail fern, is a species of fern in the family Tectariaceae. It is native to Africa from the equator southwards, and is present in the DRC, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Madagascar. Its natural habitat is deeply shaded forest floors of moist subtropical or tropical forest, and it occurs from 600 to 2,550 metres above sea level. The Latin name refers to the gemma that are produced by the fronds of this species.