Pleopeltis ecklonii (Kunze) A. R. Sm.

polypodioides: like Polypodium, ecklonii: named after C.F. Ecklon (1795-1868), a botanist whom collected in the Cape in South Africa during the 1830s

Rhizome long creeping, slender, C. 2 mm in diameter; rhizome scales dark brown, lanceolate, entire, appressed, c. 3mm long, with a dark area at the base. Fronds spaced apart. Stipe up to 13 cm long; scales on stipe ovate, dark brown with pale margins, appressed. Lamina up to 21 × 6.5 cm, oblong-deltate in outline, pinate to pinnatifid to near the midrib; lobes linear to narrowly oblong, entire, base broadly adnate, apex rounded. Upper surface glabrous, lower surface set with round to broadly lanceolate, entire, peltate scales, c. 0.5 mm, grey to pale creamy brown with a dark centre. Veins obscure, anastomising or free with terminal hydathodes. Sori round to oval, up to 12 per lobe, up to 1.5 mm in diameter, submarginal but protuding beyond the margin at maturity, exindusiate, without paraphyses.

Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.