Plants terrestrial. Rhizome creeping, 7-8 mm in diam., branching, with dense, red-brown, stiff hairs. Fronds ca. 1 cm apart; stipe ca. 75 cm, 5-6 mm in diam. at base, gray-straw-colored, base with long gray-brown hairs, scabrous, distally glabrescent; rachis, rachillae, and stalk concolorous, abaxially densely gray-brown pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Lamina dark yellow-green abaxially, deep brown adaxially when dried, 3-pinnate or 4-pinnatifid, triangular-ovate in outline, 45-60[-70] × 30-35[-50] cm; pinnae 12-14 pairs, alternate, upswept, 9-10 cm apart, stalk 1-3 cm, lower pinnae 2- or 3-pinnatisect, broadly lanceolate-triangular, basal pinnae largest, 20-26 × 10-15[-20] cm, firmly papery or subleathery, abaxially with sparse gray bristles along veins, especially on rachillae, adaxially glabrous, apex acuminate or caudate; pinnules ca. 15 pairs, alternate, anadromous, ca. 2 cm apart, spreading or upswept, stalk 3-4 mm, lower ones 1-pinnate or 2-pinnatifid, broadly lanceolate-triangular, 6-7.5 × 2-3 cm, base unequal in width, basiscopically broadly cuneate, acroscopically erect and truncate, parallel with rachis, apex long caudate; ultimate pinnules 10-12 pairs, alternate, sessile, anadromous, compact, acroscopic pinnules usually pinnatisect or not, obviously elongated at base, ca. 2 × 1 mm, base asymmetrical, acroscopically truncate, basiscopically broadly cuneate, margin subentire, apex rounded; ultimate lobes sessile, obovoid, decurrent at base, almost entire or with sparse obtuse teeth toward apex, apex obtuse; ultimate pinnules shortened upward, pinnatifid, oblong, 1-1.5 × 0.4-0.6 mm, entire toward obtuse apex. Veins abaxially prominent, adaxially not distinct, pinnate, reaching margin. Sori at base of notch along acroscopic margin of ultimate lobules, usually becoming shortly columnar and protruding from indusium; indusium brownish, hemitelioid, large, with dense long hairs.

Forests; 1200-2500 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand].