Rhizome erect or short-creeping, to 10 mm diameter; rhizome scales persistent, ovate in outline, apex long tapering to a point, subentire, to 7 mm long. Fronds tufted or sometimes shortly spaced, 35–90 cm long, proliferous, the terminal lobe similar to the laterals but usually larger. Stipe pale brown, 10–50 cm long, grooved, with scales to 6 mm long. Lamina erect, (narrowly) ovate in outline, pinnate, proliferous at pinnae apices. Pinnae in 1–5 pairs, ovate in outline, 6–23 x 2.4–5.5 cm, sessile or very shortly petiolate, base unequally wedge-shaped, margin with rounded teeth, apex notched with an abrupt and wedge-shaped sinus, hairless on both surfaces; veins forked. Rhachis similar to stipe. Sori many and usually closely parallel on the ascending veins, almost reaching the costa but ending quite a way from the margin, brown and oblong, to 2.5 cm long; indusium whitish, membranous, entire, linear, persistent.

emarginatum: notched at the apex.

Moist forests, usually in deep shade; less often in semi-deciduous forest.

See African distribution.

Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda.

Terrestrial.