Lanceleaf Tongue Fern

lanceolata: lanceolate, referring to the outline of the fronds, a rather meaningless epithet as it applies to practically all the species of the genus

Rhizome slender, widely creeping, c. 1 mm in diameter; rhizome scales pale brown to grey, linear to lanceolate, ciliate, up to 4 × 0.8 mm. Fronds spaced apart, stipitate, coriaceous. Stipe up to 20 mm long, densely covered with soft hairs when young, glabrous later. Lamina 50-200 × 6-10 mm, simple, linear-lanceolate to linear-elliptic, apex pointed to rounded, base wedge-shaped to tapering, margins narrowly reflexed. Lower surface densely covered with soft, appressed, grey to brown stellate hairs with short arms, upper surface sparsely covered to more or less hairless. Sori numerous, oval, up to 1 mm long, confined to the upper half of the frond, emerging through the hairs.

Rare

Cameroon, central African Republic, congo, DRC, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Principe, Réunion, Rodrigues Isl., Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe. Also Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia to south China and Polynesia.