Lindsaea chinensis Ching, Sinensia 1: 5. 1929, not (Linnaeus) A. Braun & C. D. Bouché (1866).

Rhizomes long creeping, sparsely scaly; scales appressed, reddish brown, 2-4 cells wide at base. Fronds approximate, or distant, 0.5-1.5 cm apart; stipe castaneous, 3-13 cm, terete or slightly quadrangular; lamina 10-20 × 1.5-10 cm, herbaceous, 1- or 2-pinnate; if 1-pinnate then lamina linear, pinnae 18-25 pairs, dimidiate, rhomboid, flabellate, or cuneate, deeply lobed to linear lobes, upper pinnae gradually reduced toward apex; if 2-pinnate then lamina triangular or deltoid-lanceolate, with 1-10 pairs of lateral pinnae, base truncate, upper part ± abruptly narrowed to caudate; if 2-pinnate then pinnules similar to those in 1-pinnate laminae but smaller and fewer, usually 6-14 on each side of costa; veins free, visible. Sori usually terminal on 1 vein, 1 in each lobe, or sometimes 2 sori connected to form a coenosorus, or rarely terminal on 3 or 4 veins; indusia reniform or oblong, interrupted.

Terrestrial, on sandy soil beside streams in forests; ca. 500 m. Guangxi, Hainan [Vietnam].