Rhizome short and robust, erect, dark brown, stoloniferous, densely covered with brown scales; scales lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, membranous, entire, apex fibriform. Fronds tufted; stipe brown, 6-10 × 0.5-1 cm, deeply grooved adaxially, base swollen, triangular and densely scaly, sparsely scaly upward. Sterile lamina bipinnatifid, green or brown-green when dry, elliptic-oblanceolate to oblanceolate, 50-100 × 18-25 cm, markedly narrowed downward, papery, rachis and costae hairy or scaly; pinnae 40-60 pairs, alternate or subopposite, sessile, oblique, basal pairs gradually contracted to small auricles; pinnae above middle largest, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 10-15 × 1-1.5 cm, sessile, pinnatifid, pectinate, apex acuminate; lobes 20-25 pairs, close, oblong or subtriangular; veins obvious, 1.5-2 cm apart, pinnate, veinlets simple. Fertile lamina shorter than sterile lamina, pinnate, oblanceolate, 20-40 × 1-8 cm, gradually narrowed downward, lower pinnae much reduced; pinnae dark brown, linear-moniliform, hardened, much inrolled, concealing sori. Indusium membranous, fixed at posterior end, free distally.

Forests, valley wetlands, also cultivated as ornamentals; 100-3800 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Japan, Korea, Russia; Europe, North America].