Rhizomes short, erect, apex with sparse brown or blackish brown, lanceolate small scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 30-45 cm; stipe stramineous, 14-22 cm, 1-2 mm in diam., base similarly scaly, upward glabrate; lamina 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, oblong-lanceolate, 20-28 × ca. 9 cm at middle, base hardly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 15 pairs, alternate, ascending, with stalk ca. 2 mm, basal pinnae slightly shortened, second basal pinnae lanceolate, up to 6.5 × ca. 2.2 cm at base, base rounded-cuneate, 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, apex acuminate; pinnules 10-12 pairs, alternate, ascending, lower pinnules stalked (stalk ca. 1 mm), oblong, up to 1.2 cm × 5-6 mm, base inequilateral, rounded-cuneate, pinnate, apex obtuse; secondary pinnules 3-5 pairs, alternate, ascending, acroscopic pinnules usually slightly larger than basiscopic pinnules; basal acroscopic secondary pinnules largest, oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5-2 mm, base cuneate, decurrent and adnate to wing of costule on basiscopic side, pinnatipartite, apex acute; ultimate segments up to 5, ascending, subulate or linear, apex acute or acuminate, sometimes deeply 2-parted; veins inconspicuous adaxially, visible abaxially, pinnate in secondary pinnules, lateral veins 1-3 pairs, oblique, simple or forked. Lamina thinly herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, glabrate on both surfaces; rachis, costae, and costules stramineous, glabrate abaxially, with needlelike spines on adaxial side at base of costae, costules, or midribs. Sori elliptic, reniform, or ± horseshoe-shaped, inframedial, close to midrib, 1 per segment or ultimate pinnules; indusia yellow-brown, elliptic, reniform, or ± horseshoe-shaped, membranous, erose at margin or subentire, persistent. Perispore surface without folds.

● Broad-leaved and mixed forests; 1700-2600 m. SW Sichuan, Yunnan.