Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, densely covered with narrowly ovate dark brown scales. Fronds 30-50 cm; stipe stramineous, 13-30 cm, 3-4 mm in diam. at base, lower part densely scaly; scales dark brown, lanceolate and linear, upper part of stipe with linear scales, sometimes glabrous, scale margins ciliate. Lamina bipinnate, ovate or narrowly ovate, 22-36 × 8-14 cm, rounded-cuneate, acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, densely scaly abaxially; scales blackish brown or dark brown, linear with dilated bases, margins ciliate. Pinnae 20-26 pairs, alternate, slightly ascendant, approximate, stalked, linear-lanceolate, middle pairs 6-10 × 1.5-2.5 cm, bases oblique, acroscopic margins truncate, basiscopic margins broadly cuneate, pinnate, apices long acuminate or caudate. Pinnules 8-12 pairs, alternate, slightly ascendant, approximate, shortly stalked, broadly lanceolate or narrowly obliquely oblong, somewhat falcate, lower pairs 10-16 × 4-5 mm, bases obliquely cuneate, auricles sometimes deltoid, margins inconspicuously serrulate, apices acuminate and spinulose; basal acroscopic pinnule largest, ovate or lanceolate, 1.2-2.5 cm × 5-6 mm, often pinnatifid; abaxially with few microscales; microscales yellowish brown, hairlike; frond texture papery or thinly leathery; venation pinnate on pinnules; lateral veins often forked, indistinct on both surfaces, sometimes slightly raised abaxially. Sori in 1 row on each side of pinnule midrib, 2-10 per pinnule; indusia present, entire.

● Forests; 1100-1700 m. Chongqing, Guizhou (Fanjing Shan), W Hunan.