Pteridium centraliafricanum (Hieron. ex R. E. Fries) Alston

aquilinum: of an eagle; either because the spreading pinnae resemble the wings of an aegle or a reference to the shape of the vascular bundle in the stipe.

Rhizome widely creeping, subterranean, 5-10 mm in diameter; scales brown, very fine, up to 1 mm long. Fronds widely spaced, stiff, erect, hard, subglabrous, 0.5 - 1.75 m tall. Stipe up to 0.5 m long, underground portion swollen and covered with fine, brown hairs, above-ground portion pale-green, glabrous. Lamina 3-pinnatifid to 4-pinnate, triangular in outline. Pinnae stand out from the rhachis horizontally at nearly right angles. Basal pinnae as long as the frond; pinnae in the upper half 2-pinnate. Pinnules deeply incised, adnate to the costules and with apices that are long and narrow. Sori linear, continuous, situated just inside the inrolled margins; pseudo-indusium continuous.

Locally abundant

Angola, Burundi, Congo, DRC, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.