Aspidium varium (Linnaeus) Swartz var. fructuosum Christ, Bull. Herb. Boissier 6: 967. 1898; A. fructuosum (Christ) Christ; A. pseudovarium Christ; Dryopteris adenorachis C. Christensen; D. apicifixa Ching, Boufford & K. H. Shing; D. cavaleriei H. Léveillé; D. fructuosa (Christ) C. Christensen var. integriloba Ching; D. hypophlebia Hayata; D. pseudosabaei Hayata; D. pseudovaria (Christ) C. Christensen; Nephrodium fructuosum (Christ) Handel-Mazzetti.

Plants 60-80 cm tall. Rhizome erect, short; scales of rhizome and stipe base dense, bright rufous-brown, ovate-lanceolate, with acicular tips, usually twisted. Fronds caespitose; stipe dark stramineous, 1/4-1/2 as long as lamina, adaxially grooved, clothed with lanceolate, dark brown scales, leaving distinct scars, distally smaller, lanceolate, sparsely spinulose-dentate; lamina oblong-lanceolate, 40-60 × 20-30 cm, widest at base, bipinnatipartite to tripinnatipartite, apex acuminate; pinnae ca. 20 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, 7-15 × 3-5 cm, widest at base, truncate, sessile; pinnules 8-10 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 × ca. 1 cm, apex obtuse, sides deltoid-dentate, basiscopic pinnules longer than acroscopic ones, pinnatifid; segments 4-6 pairs, oblong, apex with 1 or 2 acute teeth. Lamina papery or thinly leathery; rachis clothed with lanceolate, brown scales; veins conspicuous on both surfaces, mostly forked. Sori 2-5 pairs on each pinnule, borne on lower part of pinnules, nearer to costa than to margin; indusia ferruginous, horseshoe-shaped, not completely covering sorus at maturity, persistent.

Pinus forests or evergreen broad-leaved forest margins; 1800-3400 m. Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal].