Hemionitis prolifera Retzius, Observ. Bot. 6: 36. 1791; Abacopteris prolifera (Retzius) W. C. Shieh; Ampelopteris elegans Kunze; Aspidium proliferum (Retzius) Hieronymus (1895), not R. Brown (1810); Cyclosorus prolifer (Retzius) Tardieu & C. Christensen; Dryopteris prolifera (Retzius) C. Christensen; Goniopteris prolifera (Retzius) C. Presl; Meniscium proliferum (Retzius) Swartz; Phegopteris luxurians (Kunze) Mettenius; P. prolifera (Retzius) Kuhn (1879), not (Kaulfuss) Mettenius (1856); Polypodium luxurians Kunze;

Plants ca. 1 m tall. Stipe bases with sparse dark brown stellate-hairy lanceolate scales. Stipes stramineous, firm, ca. 40 cm; laminae lanceolate, bases slightly narrowed; pinnae spreading, subopposite, subsessile, lanceolate, 5-10(-15) × ca. 2 cm, bases rounded-truncate, margins undulate, apices shortly pointed. Sori attached on middle of veinlets, usually confluent when mature. n = 36.

The young fronds are eaten as a vegetable.

On sandy floodplains by streams in sunny areas; 100-1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [tropical and subtropical regions of the world except the Americas].