Nephrodium squamisetum Hooker, Sp. Fil. 4: 140. 1862; Aspidium squamisetum (Hooker) Kuhn; Ctenitis thrichorachis (Hayata) H. Itô; Dryopteris atrosetosa Rosenstock; D. buchananii (Baker) Kuntze; D. thrichorachis Hayata; Lastrea buchananii (Baker) Beddome; N. buchananii Baker; Nothoperanema squamisetum (Hooker) Ching.

Plants 90-110 cm tall. Rhizome erect, densely scaly; scales lucid, brown, ovate, entire. Fronds caespitose; stipe upper part stramineous, 38-50 cm, base 3-4 mm wide, adaxially with 2 grooves, reaching to rachis, densely clothed with brown, long subulate scales; lamina ovate, 52-60 × 34-42 cm, tripinnate, apex acuminate; pinnae up to 16 pairs, alternate, sometimes basal pair opposite, stipitate, obliquely spreading; basal pinnae larger, broadly lanceolate, ca. 21 × 10 cm, bipinnate, base inequilateral, apex acuminate; pinnules ca. 16 pairs, alternate, stalked; basal one (or two) oblong-lanceolate, 5-7 × 2-2.8 cm, larger than upper ones, pinnate, base subrounded, apex acute; ultimate pinnules 9 or 10 pairs; lower pairs subopposite, ovate-oblong, 1.4-1.6 cm × ca. 8 mm, pinnately lobed, base broadly cuneate, apex rounded; segments 3-5 pairs, basal pair oblong, entire, apex rounded; tapered from second pinnae upward, and from seventh (or eighth) pair up pinnae abruptly narrowed, ca. 6 × 2.2 cm. Veins in ultimate pinnules pinnate; veinlets forked or simple, running to frond margin, visible abaxially. Lamina herbaceous, green when dried, clothed with brown, subulate scales along costa and costule. Sori orbicular, located at end of veinlets, in 1 row on each side of costa; indusia brown, orbicular-reniform, thickly membranous, fugacious.

Forests, valleys; 1900-2900 m. Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India; C and S Africa, Indian Ocean islands (Réunion), Madagascar].