Plants 10-30 cm tall. Rhizomes erect, bearing a cluster of fleshy roots; roots extending horizontally and stolonlike. Fronds usually single; common stalk pale at lower part, 6-9 cm, slightly robust, deeply buried underground. Sterile lamina sessile, elliptic or narrowly ovate, rarely ovate, 6-10 × 1.5-4 cm, slightly fleshy to herbaceous, base cuneate, truncate, or rounded, sometimes abruptly narrowed, margin entire, apex obtuse or abruptly acute; veins distinctly reticulate. Sporophore arising from base of sterile lamina, 9-18 cm or longer; spike 2.5-3.5 cm, ca. 0.2 mm in diam., apex acute, exceeding sterile lamina. Spore surface obviously and coarsely reticulate. 2n = 240-1140.

Shaded forests, wet meadows; below 3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka; Australia, Europe, North America].