in diarn., and up to 6 m. tall, erect, slender, occasionally sending down lateral "prop" stems which are eventually creeping and may form a new upright caudex.

Lamina up to 2.4 x 1 m., 3-pinnate, ovate in outline; pinnae up to 52 x 20 cm., oblong, acute, pinnate into very narrowly shortly attenuate pinnate pinnules; pinnule segments very narrowly oblong, somewhat falcate, acute, subentire to crenate-dentate; ventral surface glabrous except for dense stiff curved pale-brown hairs along the costa and costules; dorsal surface often glaucous and with often imbricate lanceolate lacerate brown scales up to 3 mm.

long along the costules and costae of the pinnae segments; rhachis light-brown with scattered small prickles, glabrous at maturity.

It is indigenous to Angola, Annobón, Bioko, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tomé, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

An infusion of the pith and young leaves is used in traditional medicine for a variety of abdominal and gastric complaints, to ease childbirth and against tapeworms.