Pteris atrovirens Willd. var. inermis Bonap.
Pteris spinulifera Schumach.

Rhizome shortly creeping; rhizome scales lanceolate in outline, 4 mm long with ± black narrow central stripe and pale margins. Fronds monomorphic, tufted, 0.25–1 m tall, usually without gemmae. Stipe 20–50 cm long, straw-coloured, often reddish at the base. Lamina bipinnatifid, elliptic-lanceolate, 20–50 x 15–60 cm, with (1–)5–7 pairs of pinnae, the basal pair bifid; pinnae oblong, 13–34 x 3–7 cm; ultimate segments 10–21 pairs, oblong-falcate in outline, apex toothed, 1.2–6.5 x 0.4–1.5 cm; terminal segments 4.5–9 x 1–1.3 cm; costa and costulae spinulose beneath or not; rhachis mostly smooth but sometimes feebly muriculate; groups of small tubercles in axils of pinnae near rhachis; veins anastomosing in the lobes and forming narrow areoles along the costae of the pinnae. Sori reaching nearly to apex of lobes, the sterile tips toothed; paraphyses mostly present.

Rain forest, forest stream banks, streams through limestone outcrops, moist lowland evergreen forest.

Africa, Principe, Sao tomé.

Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda.

Terrestrial.