Polyphlebium borbonicum (v. d. Bosch) Ebihara & Dubuisson

borbonicum: of Bourbon; this fern was first described from Bourbon, the original name for Réunion.

Rhizome creeping, filiform; covered with long brown unbranched hairs, hairs up to 1 mm long. Fronds spaced apart. Stipe 6-30 mm long, narrowly winged in distal half to three quarters, glabrous. Rhachis winged. Lamina 25-65 × 15-50 mm, ovate to narrowly dentate to lanceolate in outline, base truncate to broadly cuneate, 2- or 3-pinnatifid; pinnae spreading at 45 to 90° from the rhachis; ultimate lobes linear, entire, rounded, false veins or drying fold absent. Sori narrowly obconical, about twice as long as wide, borne in the upper half of the frond, narrowly winged by the lamina for its whole length, soral lips flared.

Southern Africa, central and tropical Africa, Madagascar and the Mascarenes.