Megalastrum lanuginosum (Kaulf.) Holtt.

lanuginosum: slightly wooly; alluding to the slightly hairy lamina of this fern.

Rhizome erect, sometimes forming a caudex up to 45 cm high; rhizome scales up to 27 × 2 mm, subentire, golden-brown, linear. Fronds tufted, arching, thinly herbaceous, up to 2 m long. Stipe up to 75 cm long, brown, with scales similar to the rhizome scales at the extreme base. Lamina broadly triangular in outline, deeply 2-pinnatifid above to 4-pinnatifid at the base, with basal pinnae largest and strongly basiscopically developed, up to 1.5 × 0.64 m. Pinnules oblong, acuminate, margins entire or shallowly lobed, slightly hairy on both surfaces, more so on the costae & costules and rhachis. Sori small, round, up to 2 mm in diameter; indusia kidney-shaped, brown, sparsely hairy to subglabrous.

From Southern Africa extending to tropical Africa; also Comoro and Mascarene Islands, Madagascar, bioko, São Tomé.