Drynaria volkensii Hieron. var. macrosora Hieron.
Drynaria volkensii Hieron. var. uondensis Fiori
Drynaria saccardoi Cufod.

Rhizome up to 1 cm in diameter, creeping, often encircling the boles of large trees; rhizome scales dark-castaneous, spinose, up to 6 mm long. Fronds spaced, dimorph. Sterile "nest" fronds up to 24 x 18 cm., sessile, erect, ovate in outline, chartaceous, with prominent veins, pinnatifid into narrowly oblong acute to obtuse lobes, glabrous except for minute brown laciniate scales along the midrib. Fertile fronds erect to arching, firmly herbaceous, stipitate. Stipe pale brown, up to 15 x 0.3–0.4 cm, glabrous. Lamina up to 67 x 32 cm, ovate-oblong in outline, with a narrow wing decurrent on to the stipe, pinnatifid almost to the midrib into cultrate acute-acuminate lobes up to 23 x 4 cm, base abruptly broadened adnate, margin minutely and irregularly notched, thinly set with brown laciniate scales when young, glabrous at maturity. Sori 2–2.5 mm in diameter, round, borne close to the costa about 3 mm apart.

Evergreen forest.

Widespread in tropical Africa.

Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Dem. Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea (incl. Bioko), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Tanzania , Uganda, Zambia.

Epiphytic.