Plants 30-120 cm tall. Rhizome erect, short, densely scaly; scales pale ferruginous, lanceolate, ca. 2 cm, apex hairlike, usually twisted. Fronds caespitose; stipe stramineous, 1/4-1/2 as long as lamina, with oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, pale brown or dark brown scales, these gradually smaller toward rachis; lamina ovate-lanceolate, 20-80 × 10-35 cm, pinnate-pinnatisect, narrowed toward base, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 20 pairs, lanceolate, ca. 15 × 2 cm, base truncate, sessile; pinnules ca. 13 pairs, oblong, with obtuse, crenate apex, slightly protruding on both sides of base, incised-serrate. Lamina subleathery or papery, with lanceolate, brown scales along costa; veins obscure adaxially, distinct abaxially, mostly 2-forked. Sori abaxial on veinlets on lower part of segments, 3 or 4 pairs on each segment; indusia large, orbicular-reniform, slightly thick, completely covering sorus at maturity.

Thickets, broad-leaved evergreen forests, forest margins; 2400-3000 m. Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal].