Aspidium festinum Hance, J. Bot. 21: 269. 1883; Acrorumohra dissecta Ching & Y. T. Hsieh; Arachniodes erythrosora Ching; Dryopteris festina (Hance) C. Christensen; Rumohra festina (Hance) Ching.

Rhizome shortly creeping or ascending, stiff, apex moderately scaly; scales dark or reddish brown, lanceolate, 5-9 × 1.5-2.5 mm, thinly papery, apex hairlike. Fronds approximate or caespitose, 0.7-1.2 m; stipe stramineous, 30-55 cm, 3-5 mm in diam., base scaly, upward glabrescent; lamina 4-pinnate, dark green when dried, ovate-deltoid or ovate-oblong, 30-65 × 18-30 cm, herbaceous, base rounded or slightly cordate, apex acuminate, rachis glabrescent; pinnae 5-11 pairs, alternate, with to 2 cm stalk, obliquely spreading, contiguous; lowest pinnae deltoid, 14-25 × 6-12 cm, base broadly cuneate, apex acuminate; primary pinnules 12-20 pairs, shortly stalked, basal basiscopic one larger, oblong-lanceolate, 6-14 × 2-5 cm, base broadly cuneate, apex acuminate; secondary pinnules 10-16 pairs, proximal ones shortly stalked, deltoid or oblong-ovate (1.2-3 × 0.8-1.5 cm), base acroscopically rounded-truncate, basiscopically cuneate, apex acute; tertiary pinnules 3 or 4 pairs, sessile, ovate-deltoid, 5-12 × ca. 4 mm, base cuneate, apex obtuse, margin coarsely 3-5-dentate, teeth acute or blunt, mucronate tip poorly developed; upper pinnae gradually reduced; axes and veins of ultimate segments with a few scattered minute brown hairlike scales abaxially. Sori small, terminal (or subdorsal) on veinlets, 2-4(or 5) pairs per ultimate segment, medial between midvein and margin; indusia brown or reddish brown, thickly membranous, and entire.

This fern is the closest ally of Arachniodes standishii (T. Moore) Ohwi, which is distributed in Japan and Korea.

● Wet slopes by streams, dense woods or thickets at roadsides; 500-1200(-2000) m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, S Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan.