Pseudo-corm 3-lobed; bud scales triangular, c. 3 x 3 mm, blackish brown, leathery, sometimes with a hair-like apical tip up to 3 mm long. Leaves 5-35, linear in outline, needle-shaped, 30-190 x 1.5-2.5 mm, to 4 mm wide around the sporangia, with a broad hyaline margin at the base. Ligule cordate-triangular, up to 1 mm long, pale but darkened at the point of attachment. Velum complete. Sporangia oval to almost round, 2-5 mm in diameter. Megaspores 0.39-0.57 mm in diameter, grey-white, distal surface reticulate with raised ridges often not linked to the equatorial flange, proximal surface with scattered warts, sometimes coalescing into short ridges.

capensis: from the Cape, this species is endemic to the Western Cape in South Africa.

Seasonally flooded depressions, usually in sandy clay soils.

See African distribution.

South Africa.

Terrestrial.