Platycerium angolense Welw. ex Baker
Alcicornium angolense (Baker) Underw.
Platycerium velutinum C. Chr.

Itala dawikulukulu Mutuntami

Rhizome c. 1 cm. in diameter; rhizome scales awl-shaped, ciliate, up to 1.5 cm. long, brown with a central black stripe. Fronds dimorphous. Sterile fronds lower part thick and spongy, upper part membranous, up to 75 x 30 cm., erect, oblong in outline, overlapping at the cordate base and forming a large thalloid mass, prominently veined in the upper 2/3, margin entire to irregularly wavy at the apex, covered at first with grey stellate hairs, becoming hairless with age. Fertile fronds up to 75 x 55 cm., broadly obtriangular in outline, apex rounded, margin entire to subentire, coriaceous, subglabrous above, densely set below with rufous stellate hairs c. 1 mm. in diameter. Sporangia covering a large oval area of about 20-40 x 10-40 cm. below the frond apex, densely set with brown stellate hairs similar to those on the lamina.

The fertile frond is broadly cuneate, lacking the ‘stag horns’ of the commonly cultivated species.

eléphantos: elephant, otis: ear; an allusion to the very large and broad fronds.

Large trees in dry forests, mixed evergreen forest, at forest edges, woodland, on Raphia palms, Erythrina, in light shade or full sunlight.

See African distribution.

Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Togo, Uganda, Zambia.

Epiphytic, lithophytic.