Woodsia alpina (Bolton) Gray var. glabella (R. Brown ex Richardson) D. C. Eaton; W. hyperborea (Liljeblad) R. Brown var. glabella (R. Brown ex Richardson) Watt; W. lapponica Ångström; W. yazawai Makino.

Plants 5-10 cm tall. Rhizomes compact, ascending, scaly as stipe base; scales concolorous, brown, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, membranous, margin entire. Fronds clustered; stipe brown-stramineous, slender, 1-2 cm, brittle, articulate below middle, glabrous or rarely with few brown, linear scales on apical portion; lamina 1-pinnate-pinnatifid, linear-lanceolate, 3-6 cm × 7-11 mm, thinly herbaceous, both surfaces glabrous or with occasional hairs, base attenuate, apex acuminate; rachis glabrous; pinnae 4-9 pairs, well separated, sessile, spreading; lower pinnae shorter than above, basal one flabellate; medial pinnae largest, deltoid-ovate, 3-5 × 2-5 mm, base truncate, margin pinnatifid, with 1-3 pairs of pinnules, apex obtuse; pinnules elliptic or tongue-shaped, proximal pairs largest, ca. 3 mm, undulate or apically crenulate. Veins pinnate, visible. Sori consisting of few sporangia, submarginal; indusia saucer-shaped, fimbriate, thinly membranous, brittle, usually fallen when mature. 2n = 78.

Rock crevices in needle-leaved forests and mixed forests; 2100-3700 m. Gansu, Hebei, Jilin, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Yunnan [Japan, Russia; Europe, North America].