Rhizome thick, short, horizontally creeping in dry rock crevices of limestone cliff, densely covered with crispy scales of c. 6-10 by 2-3 mm that are broadly basally attached, mixed with unicellular hairs, with roots on the lower side, leaves close together, distichous, the swollen base of the stipe, 5-6 mm high and 2-4 mm diam., arranged in two close lateral rows on each side of rhizome and densely covered by a cushion like mass of clear red-brown, lanceolate imbricate thin scales like those on the rhizome, their insertion not extending beyond the articulated top of the thickened base. Stipe red brown, 10-25 cm long. Lamina 15-20 by 10-20 cm, thin, flat when dry, more or less 5-sided deltoid, acuminate, decompound, 3-4 pinnate, basal pinnae the largest, deltoid, anadromous, much produced on the basiscopic side; basal segments of the upper pinnae (nearly) opposite; venation free, pinnate; rhachises and veins bearing numerous acicular hairs (according to Holttum 1985, capitate hairs are also present). Sori dorsal on the veinlets, rounded, indusium membranaceous, rounded or reniform, attached to the receptacle by its base, pilose and ciliate; receptacle large, prominent; sporangia often with some hairs; spores bilateral, opaque, globular, coarsely verrucose.
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