200.400 Stenochlaena J. Sm.

Large scandent ferns. Rhizome creeping or climbing; rhizome scales few, peltate, situated towards the apex of the rhizome only. Fronds dimorphous, pinnate or bipinnate, firmly membranous, spaced. Sterile fronds: lateral pinnae articulated to the rhachis, with basal glands, glabrous, margins serrate; veins forming a single row of narrow areolae on each side of the costa, free elsewhere or entirely free. Fertile fronds with linear entire pinnae or divided into linear segments, almost entirely covered with sporangia on the undersurface. Paraphyses absent, annulus with 10-20 cells, spores bilateral, sori exindusiate.

Derivation of name: stenos: narrow, chlaena: covering; referring to the very narrow fertile segments of the fertile laminae.

Worldwide: c. 6 species, palaeotropical distribution

Zimbabwe: 1 taxon.