Plants 60-150 cm tall. Rhizomes short and ascending, including stipe bases with deep brown lanceolate marginally sparsely hairy scales. Stipes 30-70 cm, stramineous, glabrous above bases; laminae triangular-ovate, similar in length to stipes, 30-45 cm wide at proximal part, not tapering at bases, 3-pinnatifid, acuminate and pinnatifid at apices; pinnae ca. 14 pairs, oblique distally, alternate, or proximal ones opposite, stalks to 2 cm or more, proximal pair larger, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 20 × 5 cm, slightly tapering to bases, acuminate and pinnatifid at apices; second pair and above pinnae gradually reduced distally, not tapering to bases, with stalks 1-1.5 cm, bipinnatifid; pinnules 15-20 pairs, 3.5-8 × 1-2.5 cm, lanceolate, bases rounded-truncate, symmetrical, sessile (proximal ones shortly stalked), ± decurrent (distal ones connected to each other by narrow wing), pinnatifid nearly to costules, apices acuminate; segments 10-15 pairs, spreading, 5-12 × 2-3.5 mm, bases connected to each other by narrow wings, margins entire or sharply lobate, apices obtuse or bluntly pointed. Veins evident abaxially, veinlets simple or forked on sharply lobate segments, 4-8 pairs per segment. Laminae herbaceous, when dry grass-green, glabrous on both surfaces, with orange-yellow transparent capitate glandular hairs abaxially, or along costules and near ends of costae with few unicellular acicular hairs, adaxially with grayish white short acicular hairs along costae and costules, usually with reddish purple spots on costae. Sori small, orbicular, 3-6 pairs per segment, attached near ends of veinlets; indusia small, orbicular-reniform, grayish green, glabrous, deciduous when mature or hidden in sori.

Streamsides in valleys, wet soil at forest margins. S Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, N Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, S Korea].