Alsophila dregei (Kunze) R. M. Tryon

dregeana: after Johann Franz Drège (1794-1881), German horticulturalist, botanical collector and explorer who worked extensively in South Africa.

Tree fern. Caudex thick, stout, 5 m × 45 cm. Fronds coriaceous, in whorls. Stem without spines and without aphlebia in the crown of the caudex. Stipe rough, 30-45 cm long, pale matt brown; basal castaneous, shiny, twisted, up to 40 mm long, apices attenuate. Lamina 1.5-3 m × 0.5-0.7 m, 3-pinnatifid to 3-pinnate, elliptic in outline. Ultimate lobes adnate along the costules, oblong, acute, somewhat falcate, margins entire to minutely lobed; costules and veins below with light brown hair-like scales. Sori up to 10 per lobe, round, cup-shaped, situated in 2 rows along each side of the costule; indusium cup-shaped.

Angola, Bioko, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, DRC, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascan region