Asplenium clarkei (Beddome) Atkinson ex C. B. Clarke; Athyrium nigripes (Blume) T. Moore var. clarkei (Beddome) Beddome.

Rhizomes short, stout, erect, densely clothed with brown lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate scales at apices and stipe bases. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 20-80 cm; stipe blackish brown, upward stramineous, 2-20 cm, 1.5-2 mm in diam., upward glabrate; lamina 2-pinnate, narrowly lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 25-60 × 7-12(-18) cm at middle, base slightly narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae 20-24 pairs, opposite or subopposite, subspreading, subsessile; basal pinnae 1.8-3 cm, narrowly triangular, apex obtuse; middle pinnae broadly lanceolate, 3.5-4.2 × 1.6-2 cm at base, base equilateral, truncate, parallel to rachis, pinnate, apex acuminate; pinnules 8 or 9 pairs, subopposite, slightly ascending, approximate; basal pinnules largest, oblong-ovate, up to 1 cm × 5-6 mm, base cuneate, adnate to costa, margin serrulate; upper pinnules gradually smaller, decurrent and connate with each other by wing of costule, apex rounded; veins visible on both surfaces, pinnate in pinnules, lateral veins 3-5 pairs, oblique, 2- or 3-forked, but pinnate in basal acroscopic lobes. Lamina herbaceous when dried, greenish brown, glabrate on both surfaces; rachis stramineous, upward gradually becoming brownish stramineous, costae brownish stramineous, sparsely shortly hairy abaxially, with needlelike spines on adaxial side at base of costa and costule; distal part of rachis with scaly bulbils usually 1 per frond. Sori shortly linear or lunate, 1-3 pairs per pinnule, on acroscopic veins (rarely also on basiscopic veins), biseriate on both sides of costule; indusia brown, shortly linear or lunate, membranous, erose at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds. 2n = 80.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests in valleys, wet areas, watersides; 1500-2700 m. Guizhou, S Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Nepal].