Bolbitis heudelotii (Bory ex Fée) Alston

heudelotii: named after J. Heudelot, a French explorer who collected plants in Guinea and Senegal from 1828 to 1837.

Aquatic species. Rhizome widely creeping, up to 10 mm in diameter; rhizome scales very dark brown, lanceolate, entire. Fronds spaced apart, arching, firmly membranous, transparent when submerged, trimorphic. Sterile submerged fronds: stipe 2.5-7 cm long, lamina ovate to elliptic, 7.5-17 × 3.5-7 cm, pinnate to deeply pinnatifid towards the apex, not gemmiferous; pinnae deeply pinnatifid towards the frond base, becoming subentire towards the apex, angled at ± 45° towards the apex. Sterile aerial fronds: stipe 11-16 cm long, lamina ovate to elliptic, 16-32 × 12-15 cm, pinnate, terminal portion pinnatifid, not gemmiferous; pinnae oblong-lanceolate, apex pointed, base unequally wedge-shaped, sessile to asymmetrically adnate, margins entire to widely and shallowly serrate. Fertile aerial fronds: similar to sterile aerial fronds but with the pinnae much narrower and thus more widely spaced. Sporangia either covering the whole undersurface of the pinna or in irregular patches.

Rare

An essentially tropical African species, widespread in West and East Africa and Zambia, rare in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and exceptional in Limpopo in South Africa.