Plants (20-)40-60(-80) cm tall. Rhizomes long creeping, apices including stipe bases with brown lanceolate scales. Fronds distant; stipes (10-)20-30(-40) cm, stramineous to brown; laminae (10-)30-50(-60) × 10-25 cm, bases not narrowed or slightly so, apices caudate to acuminate; lateral pinnae (5-)10-20 pairs, shortly stalked; middle pinnae linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, (5-)8-15(-18) × (0.5-)0.8-1.5(-2) cm, bases truncate or shallowly cordate, lobed 1/2-2/3 toward costae, apices acuminate to acute; segments (10-)15-30 pairs, 2-5 × 2-4 mm, basal acroscopic one (sometimes also basiscopic one) longer, sharply pointed or acute at apex; veinlets 6-10 pairs, simple (sometimes forked on basal acroscopic segment), proximal pair anastomosing, next (0.5-)1-1.5 pairs running to sinus membrane. Laminae papery to subleathery, grayish green when dried, both surfaces with short acicular hairs along costae and veins, also with minute hairs throughout. Sori orbicular, submarginal; indusia shortly hairy or subglabrous. Sporangia bearing reddish orange glands on stalks. Spores dark brown, densely cristate. 2n = 72, 108, 144, 216.

Two forms have been recognized from Taiwan: Cyclosorus acuminatus f. ensipinnus (Hayata) H. Itô (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 51: 712. 1937; Dryopteris sophoroides (Thunberg) Kuntze f. ensipinna Hayata, Icon. Pl. Formosan. 4: 180-181. 1914) and C. acuminatus f. pilosus H. Itô (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 51: 712. 1937).

Semi-open places in thickets, grasslands, farmland margins, roadsides; near sea level to 1700 m. Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Philippines].