Pellaea longipilosa Bonap.

longipilosa: with long hairs, referring to the indumentum on the upper side of the rhachis (Jacobsen 1983); misleading allusion to the short brown hairs along stipe and rhachis (Burrows 1990)

Rhizome shortly creeping to sub-erect, up to 8 mm in diameter; rhizome scales pale brown, subentire, linear, 4-5 mm long. Fronds tufted, erect, coriaceous. Stipe brown to black, up to 20 cm long, glabrous with age and with pale brown scales near the base similar to those on the rhizome. Lamina narrowly oblong to lanceolate in outline, up to 39 cm × 12 cm, imparipinnate to 2-pinnate in the lower parst, with up to 20 pairs of pinnae. Pinnae narrowly ovate to linear in outline, up to 6.5 cm long, slowly tapering to a somewhat rounded apex, cordate base articulated to a short petiole, glabrous above, sparsely hairy or glabrous below, veins hardly visible and free. Rhachis and secondary rhachises brown to black, with a brown indumentum becoming glabrous with age. Sori marginal, continuous; indusium entire, membranous, continuous.

Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.