Asplenium formosum Willd.
Syn:
 
Photos:
 This rare fern has a thin, erect rhizome with tuffed, not proliferous fronds. The stipe & rachis are blackish-brown to black; the rachis has a narrow wing. The   lamina (100-310 x 13-35mm) is pinnnate to 2-pinnatifid and narrowly lanceolate to linear inoutline. It carries up to 50 pairs of glabrous pinnae, lower pinnae gradually reducing in size. The pinnae margins are entire on the basiscopic side and incised on the acroscopic side. One or two linear to oval sori are situated on the basal margins of the pinnae, indusium present.
Ecology: Deep shade in forest, boulders in riverine forest, 600-1400m
Derivation of the specific name: formosum: delicate
Distribution in southern Africa: Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe
 

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Copyright: Petra Ballings, 2006