Marsilea nubica A. Braun var. gymnocarpa (Lepr. ex A. Braun) Launert

nubica: from Nubia, from north-east africa (Sudan); gymnocarpa: naked fruit, outer layer of sporocarp peels of leaving it "naked" beneath.

Floating form: stipe up to 14 cm long. Leaflets up to 35 mm long, outer margin uneven with shallow indentations. Dry land form: stipe 1.5-6 cm long. Leaflets up to 7 mm long, outer margins entire to very shallowly irregular. Sporocarps: usually single, or crowded at stipe base; very glossy, shiny black, with a few flattened scales when young becoming glabrous with age, smooth with minute dots, with the black outer layer becoming detached and peeling; broadly to narrowly deltate in lateral view, vertical cross-section elliptic; lower tooth absent, upper tooth a slight hump. Sporocarp with its long axis pointing downwards; pedicels up to 3 mm long, free, arising from the axil of the stipe.

Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe. Also Madagascar.