Pteris friesii Hieron.

friesii: named after Robert Elias Fries of Sweden, who participated in the Swedish Rhodesia-Congo Expedition in 1911-1912

Rhizome erect to prostrate, up to 15 mm in diameter; rhizome scales lanceolate, brown with dark central stripe, up to 3 mm long, ciliate. Fronds tufted, arching, slightly coriaceous. Stipe up to 60 cm long, strawcoloured to dark brown, glabrous. Lamina up to 1 × 0.8 m, ovate in outline, deeply 2-pinnatifid, basal pinnae basiscopically developed. Pinnae narrowly lanceolate, pinnatifid; ultimate lobes narrowly linear, apices rounded, margins entire; veins free, no veins anastomosing below the sinus; glabrous on both surfaces, single spine present along the costa at the junction of the costules on the uppersurface only. Rhachis glabrous, smooth. Sori linear, continuous, marginal; indusia entire, membranous.

Angola, Cameroon, DRC, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Also on Mascarene and Comoro Islands, Seysecelles and Madagascar.