Sagenia coadunata J. Smith in Hooker, J. Bot. 4: 184. 1841, based on Aspidium coadunatum Wallich ex Hooker & Greville, Icon. Filic. t. 202. 1831, not Kaulfuss (1824); A. kwanonense Hayata; A. macrodontum (Fée) Ching; A. pinfaense Christ; Pleocnemia kwangtungensis (Ching) Ching; Sagenia macrodonta Fée; Tectaria coadunata var. hirsuta Holttum; T. coadunata var. minor Holttum; T. consimilis Ching & Chu H. Wang; T. junlianensis Ching & Chu H. Wang; T. kwangtungensis Ching; T. macrodonta (Fée) C. Christensen.

Plants terrestrial, 30-100 cm tall. Rhizome shortly creeping or erect, thick, densely scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales stiff, dark brown with a light margin, lanceolate, 6-7 mm, entire. Fronds clustered; stipe stramineous to pale castaneous, glossy, 20-40 cm, glabrescent above. Lamina pinnatifid to quadripinnatifid, light green to brown when dried, deltoid, 20-40 × 20-30 cm, herbaceous to thickly papery, apex acute; rachises, costae, midribs of pinnules, and adaxial surface of lamina and segments ± hairy; hairs articulate, coarse; basal pinnae asymmetrical, oblong-subdeltoid, subopposite, up to 10-25 cm, bipinnate to tripinnatifid, long stalked, middle pinnae alternate, 10-15 cm, 5-7 pairs below deeply lobed apical pinnae, oblong to oblong-lanceolate; pinnules of middle pinnae stalked, oblong-subtriangular, ca. 15 × 10 cm, apices acuminate, deeply lobed; secondary pinnules falcate-lanceolate, bases crenate or pinnatifid, apices rounded; segments falcate-lanceolate, entire, obtuse. Veins copiously anastomosing, with included free veinlets. Sori orbicular, at apex of included veinlets, in a single row on each side of midrib of ultimate lobes, medial indusiate; indusia rather large, brown, entire, clypeate, membranous, glabrous or hairy. 2n = 80.

Because Tectaria coadunata is variable in size, stipe color, and lamina shape, this has resulted in a large number of synonyms.

Dense forests; 500-2500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropial Africa, Madagascar].