Hemionitis pozoi Lagasca, Nov. Gen. Pl. 33. 1816; Cyclosorus pozoi (Lagasca) C. M. Kuo; Gymnogramma totta Schlechtendahl; G. totta var. mollissima Kunze; Lastrea africana (Desvaux) Ching; Leptogramma africana (Desvaux) Nakai ex Mori; L. mollissima (Kunze) Ching; L. pozoi subsp. mollissima (Kunze) Nakaike; L. totta (Schlechtendahl) J. Smith; Polypodium africanum Desvaux; P. totta Willdenow (1810), not Thunberg (1800); Stegnogramma mollissima (Kunze) Fraser-Jenkins; S. pozoi (Lagasca) K. Iwatsuki; Thelypteris mollissima (Kunze) Thapa; T. pozoi (Lagasca) C. V. Morton.

Plants 35-45 cm tall. Rhizomes short and erect, with brown lanceolate hairy scales. Fronds clustered; stipes ca. 13 cm, stramineous, bases with brown scales, distally with grayish white acicular hairs; laminae lanceolate, 20-28 × 10-13 cm, slightly tapering proximally, pinnate-pinnatifid, pinnate-acuminate at apices; lateral free pinnae 9 pairs, proximal pinnae shortly stalked, proximal pair of similar shape and size and reflexed; middle pinnae lanceolate, ca. 6 × 1.5 cm, bases truncate, pinnatifid to 1/2 of distance to costae, apices long caudate; segments rectangular, entire, obtuse-rounded at apices. Veinlets evident, simple, basiscopic vein of proximal pair arising from costae, acroscopic vein arising from base of costules and reaching margin. Laminae herbaceous, deep green when dry, costae and veins with acicular hairs, also with acicular short hairs on intercostal areas of both surfaces. Sori narrowly ovate, attached on middle or proximal parts of veinlets and slightly closer to bases. Sporangia each with 1 or 2 setae near annuli. 2n = 144.

Fraser-Jenkins (Taxon. Revis. Indian Subcontinental Pteridophytes, 195. 2008) believes Thelypteris mollissima is a strictly Asian taxon that should be separated from the Macronesian and African T. pozoi. This is not accepted here.

Lower mountain areas; 300-600 m. SE Taiwan (Lan Yu) [S India, Indonesia, Japan, Sri Lanka; Africa].