Pteris prolifera Hieron.
Pteris deistelii Hieron.

Rhizome woody, erect or shortly creeping; rhizome scales dark, linear-lanceolate in outline, 5 mm long, with narrow paler erose margins. Fronds tufted, (0.5–)1–2 m tall. Stipe straw-coloured, darker at base, 50–85 cm tall. Lamina ovate-lanceolate in outline, pinnate, 0.6(–1) m long, up to ± 50 cm wide, with apical gemma, near top pair of pinnae; pinnae in 11–18 pairs, narrowly oblong in outline, the lower bifid, 7.5–35 x 2–6 cm, with 12–46 pairs of narrowly oblong ultimate segments, 2.3–5 x 0.2–0.5 mm, apex rounded; terminal segments 6 x 0.4 cm ; sinuses usually wide; pinna segments sometimes replaced by a pinnatifid pinnule; costal spinules present above at junctions with costulae and often along costulae as well; veins free. Sori extending for ± 1/2–4/5 the length of segments, the sterile margins beyond entire.

P. diestelii is sometimes used as a synonym, this must be a writing mistake. The type specimen was collected by H. Deistel, the protologe describes P. deistelii (Botanische Jahrbücher 53(1915):400).
Tardieu-Blot, M.-L. (1964) in Flore du Cameroun has both P. preusssii and P. prolifera as accepted species.

preusii: named after Dr. Paul Rudolf Preuss (1861- ), German botanist, traveller and collector, participated in the 1888-1891 Zintgraff Expedition to Cameroon.

Evergreen forest and bamboo forest, sometimes in swampy places.

See African distribution.

Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda.

Terrestrial.