Small Leaf Climbing Fern

microphyllum: small-leaved; unclear reference, no parts of the frond are smaller than that of other Lygodium species.

Climbing fern. Rhizome creeping, rhizome scales linear, blackish-brown. Fronds spaced apart. Stipe and rhachis of an elongated frond function as the climbing stem, from which short secondary rhachises with an opposing pair of pinnae arise, apical bud densely covered with short brown hairs. Pinnae oblong, pinnate, glabrous. Sterile pinnules attenuate, up to 4.5 × 1.3 cm, oblong-lanceolate, base cordate, apex acute to rounded, margins minutely lobed. Fertile pinnules broadly lanceolate to oblong, base square, up to 3.5 × 2.5 cm with numerous protuding fertile lobes, up to 12 mm long; sporangia 10-12 pairs, arranged in 2 rows along the margins.

Rare

South Africa, through Mozambique and up the coast into much of tropical Africa; also in Asia, Australia and Polynesia.