Rhizomes short, stout, erect, apex densely clothed with brown, lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 30-75 cm; stipe blackish brown, upward brown-stramineous, ca. 38 cm, ca. 3 mm in diam. at base, base similarly scaly, upward glabrate; lamina 3-pinnate, deltoid-ovate, ca. 38 × 34 cm, base subtruncate, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 12 pairs, alternate, ascending, with stalk ca. 1 cm, basal pinnae larger, oblong-ovate, ca. 19 × 8 cm at middle, base rounded-cuneate, 2-pinnate, apex long acuminate; pinnules ca. 12 pairs, alternate, ascending, basiscopic pinnules usually slightly longer than acroscopic pinnules, basal pinnules slightly shortened, middle pinnules ovate-oblong, up to 4.6 × ca. 2 cm at base, base inequilateral, truncate, parallel to costae on acroscopic side, narrowly cuneate on basiscopic side, with stalk 2-3 mm, pinnate, apex obtuse or obtuse-acute; secondary pinnules 7 or 8 pairs, alternate, subspreading, very shortly stalked or sessile, acroscopic secondary pinnules usually larger than basiscopic pinnules, basal acroscopic secondary pinnules largest, oblong-ovate, ca. 1.4 cm × 5-7 mm at base, base broadly cuneate, inequilateral, pinnatipartite, apex obtuse-rounded; tertiary segments ca. 3 pairs, oblong, up to 4 × ca. 3 mm, apex rounded with teeth; veins visible on both surfaces, pinnate in segments, lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs, simple. Lamina herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, glabrate on both surfaces; rachis and costae stramineous on abaxial surface, sometimes pale purplish red, glabrate, with needlelike spines on costa, costule, and midrib adaxially. Sori elliptic, 1 per segment, but 2 or 3 pairs in basal acroscopic segments, subcostular; indusia yellow-brown, elliptic, membranous, erose at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds, with granular ornamentation.

● Mossy forests; 1700-2600 m. S Yunnan.