Nephrodium chinense Baker in Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil. 278. 1867; Aspidium forbesii Hance.

Plants 25-35 cm tall. Rhizome erect, short, stout; scales of rhizome and base of stipe dense, brown (sometimes dark brown in center), lanceolate. Fronds caespitose; stipe stramineous, 10-20 cm, ca. 2 mm in diam., glabrous or sparsely scaly upward; lamina as long as or longer than stipe, pentagonal, 8-18 cm wide, tripinnate-pinnatipartite; pinnae 5-8 pairs, oblique, basal pair largest, 6-12 × 3-8 cm, widest at base, deltoid-lanceolate, base asymmetrical, upper side close to rachis, lower side obliquely extended, stalk 5-10 mm, apex acuminate; pinnules oblique, basiscopic ones larger than acroscopic ones, basal one largest, 2.5-5 × 1.5-2.5 cm, widest at base, deltoid-lanceolate, base subtruncate, stalk 1.5-3 mm, apex shortly acuminate; ultimate segments deltoid-ovate or lanceolate, apex obtuse, shallowly pinnatifid or sparsely serrate. Lamina papery, glabrous adaxially; rachis as well as costa abaxially covered with small, lanceolate, dark brown scales, sparsely brown pubescent along vein; veins pinnate on ultimate segments, visible abaxially, veinlets forked or simple. Sori terminal on apex of veinlets, nearer to margin than to costa; indusia orbicular-reniform, subentire, persistent.

Fraser-Jenkins has identified the British Museum holotype of Aspidium forbesii as Dryopteris chinensis.

Forests; 200-1200 m. Anhui, Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].