Menisorus unitus(Kunze) S.E.Fawc. & A.R.Sm.

WFO wfo-1000027865 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. a M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2014-06-05 / obs. 15517752
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. b M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517759
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. c M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517760
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. d M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517761
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. e M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517763
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. f M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517765
Menisorus unitus, photographed by M Kriek
fig. g M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15517767

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 853975
Filed as
Aspidium microsorum C.Presl
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
H. Cuming 1841
Origin
PH
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 22 botanical countries

Regions where Menisorus unitus is native: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Comoros, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe BurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaGhanaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabwe Comoros
Native distribution of Menisorus unitus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Comoros COM
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 37 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aspidium costulare Kuhn
  • Aspidium malgassicum Kuhn
  • Aspidium microsorum Kuhn
  • Cyclosorus albidipilosus (Bonap.) Ching
  • Cyclosorus costularis (Baker) Ching
  • Cyclosorus gladiatus (C.Chr.) Ching
  • Cyclosorus madagascariensis (Fée) Ching
  • Cyclosorus patens (Fée) Copel.
  • Cyclosorus silvaticus (Pappe & Rawson) Ching
  • Cyclosorus silvaticus (Pappe & Rawson) Tardieu
  • Cyclosorus subpennigerus (C.Chr.) Ching
  • Cyclosorus subpennigerus (C.Chr.) Tardieu
  • Dryopteris albidipilosa Bonap.
  • Dryopteris costularis (Baker) C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris gladiata C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris madagascariensis (Fée) C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris silvatica (Pappe & Rawson) C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris silvatica var. amplectens C.Chr.
  • Dryopteris silvatica var. glandulifera Bonap.
  • Dryopteris subpennigera C.Chr.
  • Goniopteris madagascariensis Fée
  • Goniopteris patens Fée
  • Goniopteris silvatica Pappe & Raws
  • Goniopteris unita (Kunze) J.Sm.

and 13 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.