Pleopeltis excavata (Bory ex Willd.) Sledge
Polypodium simplex Sw.
Polypodium excavatum Bory ex Willd.
Phymatodes excavata (Bory ex Willd.) C.Presl
Drynaria excavata (Bory ex Willd.) Fée
Polypodium excavatum Willd.
Pleopeltis preussii (Hier.) Tardieu
Polypodium preussii Hieron.

Rhizome widely creeping, up to 5 mm in diameter, with a whitish, waxy covering; rhizome scales shiny, brown, lanceolate to narrowly ovate in outline, up to 4 mm long, apex pointed, margins paler, subentire. Fronds spaced apart (4-12 mm), erect, membranous, deciduous. Stipe up to 9 cm long, strawcoloured to yellowish, with a few scattered, small brown scales when young. Lamina up to 35(-47) × 4 cm, narrowly lanceolate to narrowly olong-linear, apex gradually tapering to a point or rounded, base narrowly wedge-shaped, margins entire to weakly wavy, glabrous on both surfaces or with a few scales when yound, veins rather obscure. Sori round, 2.5-5 mm in diameter at maturity, in a line on either side of the midrib in the upper half of the lamina, exindusiate, sunken and thus creating a slightly raised impression on the upper surface of the lamina.

This species can be distinguished from Lepisorus schraderi and Pleopeltis macrocarpa by having a thinly membranous, glabrous, deciduous lamina and a rhizome that has a white, waxy coating. Microgramma mauritiana has sori set on the lower part of the lamina (not the upper) and is glabrous.

excavatus: hollowed out, referring to the sori which are embedded in shallow cavities of the lamina.

Dry forest, mist-forest, moist evergreen forest or in high-altitude rocky outcrops, Brachystegia woodland, tree-heath montane zone, partially or deeply shaded.

Africa, Comoro Isl., Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion.

Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Ethiopia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Epiphytic, lithophytic.