Description:
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Caudex to 4 m tall. Stipe 56 cm long, very dark, bearing copious blunt spines 1–1.5 mm long on the lower half; scales very dark, glossy with dull fragile margins, to 10 mm long; one pair of reduced pinnae near base of stipe. Lamina incompletely known; basal pinnae 29 cm long, next pair 32 cm long, others to 40 cm long. Rhachis below dark, glabrous, minutely verrucose, hairs on upper surface brown, thin, somewhat contorted; near base of pinna-rhachis some scales 3–4 mm long like those on the stipe, distally some entirely thin scales. Pinnules to 8 x 1.8 cm, shortly tapering to a point, 2 cm apart; basal pair of lobes free, then one pair adnate, rest of pinnule lobed almost to the costa; lobes slightly oblique and slightly falcate, the larger ones shallowly crenate throughout; costules 4–4.5 mm apart; veins to 8 pairs, mostly forked below the middle, slender, slightly prominent on the lower surface, not on the upper. Scales and hairs: on lower surface of costae brown flat elongate scales near base grading distally to brown bullate scales, no hairs; on costules brown bullate hair-pointed scales; on upper surface of costae contorted hairs as on pinna-rachis, costules hairless except near base of pinnules. Sori at forks of veins, exindusiate. |