Pteris tahuataensis

Description. Terrestrial or lithophytic ferns; rhizomes creeping to suberect, 2 - 5 cm long, 1 - 3 cm in diameter, clothed in fine, golden-brown acicular hairs 1 - 2.5 mm long; fronds 15 - 20 per rhizome, pendent, 35 - 125 cm long; stipes ca. 1 / 2 length of frond, up to 4 mm in diameter, atrocastaneous to stramineous, grooved adaxially, sparsely pustulate, glabrous except for a sparse cover of linear to linear-lanceoate, tan-brown scales 3 - 5 x 0.3 - 0.5 mm at base of stipes; blades chartaceous, glabrous, ovate, 18 - 65 x 12 - 35 cm, ovate. with 5 - 7 pairs of pinnae; proximal 1 - 3 pinnaepairs 1 - (2 -) pinnate-pinnatifid, up to 34 cm long, sessile or stalked up to 9 mm, base obtuse to truncate, uniauriculate or bearing 2 - 3 pair of falcate lobes or with proximal pair occasionally dividing into falcate pinnules 5 - 13 cm x 1.4 - 1.7 mm, reaching maximum length basiscopically on lowest pinnae, apices acute to cuneate, or attenuate, margins crenate to dentate; distal part of blade composed of 3 - 5 pinnae pairs, these simple, falcate, subopposite, up to 23 cm long, the bases sessile, obtuse to truncate, sometimes uniauriculate acroscopically, tapering gradually to cuneate or attenuate apices with crenate-dentate margins, the single terminal pinna free or sometimes adnate basally to the distal pinnae pair, 6.5 - 23 x 1.0 - 2.5 cm, apex attenuate, crenate; costaeand costules grooved adaxially, rounded abaxially, similar to stipe in color; veins netted with 2 - 3 rows of areoles. Sori with indusia 0.5 - 0.9 mm wide, olivaceous; sori usually absent at apices of pinnae, Spores castaneous.