Polypodium glaucum Thunberg ex Houttuyn, Nat. Hist. 14: 177. 1783; Dicranopteris glauca (Thunberg ex Houttuyn) Underwood; Gleichenia glauca (Thunberg ex Houttuyn) Hooker (1844), not Swartz (1806); G. japonica Sprengel; Hicriopteris glauca (Thunberg ex Houttuyn) Ching; H. remota Ching.

Plants ca. 1.5 m tall. Rhizomes creeping, ca. 3 mm in diam., covered with brown scales. Fronds 2-pinnate; pinnae opposite, oblong, 60-90 × 18-28 cm, base slightly attenuate, apex acuminate; pinnules alternate or subopposite, 25-35 on each side, pinnatifid, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 11-16 × 1.2-2.4 cm, base truncate, apex acuminate; lobes alternate, 20-35 on each side, horizontally spreading, lanceolate, 7-12 × 2-3 mm, rarely lowest pairs reflexed to rachises, apex obtuse; lamina glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, papery, glabrous, costae and costules with sparse stellate hairs, glabrescent; costae flat adaxially; veins prominent on both surfaces. Sori with 3 or 4 sporangia.

Thickets, mountain slopes, forests, forest margins; 300-2300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Japan].