Pink Leaved Blechnum

attenuatum: tapering, pinnae taper to a sharp point

Rhizome creeping to suberect, 1-3.5 cm thick and up to 50 cm long; scales dark brown, up to 4 cm long, linear-attenuate, margins entire. Fronds dimorphic, tufted, thinly to firmly leathery. Stipe up to 12 cm, pale brown and glabrous except for scales similar to the rhizome clustered at the base. Sterile lamina 0.3-1.8 m × 4.5-36 cm, narrowly elliptic in outline, pinnate, pinnae broadly attached to the rhachis, gradually reducing downwards with lowermost pinnae rudimentary; pinnae linear-attenuate, margin entire. Fertile fronds similar in size or longer than sterile fronds with thin, linear pinnae with widened bases that are joined to the rhachis. Sori linear, covering the whole length of the fertile pinnae; indusium linear, entire.

C and E Africa southwards to S Africa, also in Madagascar, the comoro and Mascarene islands.