Nephrodium griffithii Baker in Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil. 300. 1867; Aspidium griffithii (Baker) Beddome; A. malayense Christ; A. multicaudatum (C. B. Clarke) Beddome; Nephrodium multicaudatum C. B. Clarke; Sagenia griffithii (Baker) Beddome; Tectaria malayense (Christ) Copeland; T. multicaudata (C. B. Clarke) Ching.

Plants terrestrial, 1-1.2 m tall. Rhizome erect, short, thick, ca. 1.5 cm in diam., densely scaly at apex and stipes; scales stiff, dark brown, linear-lanceolate, up to 2 cm, entire, apices long acuminate. Fronds clustered; stipe castaneous, glossy, up to 60 cm, 8-10 mm in diam. Lamina 2-pinnate to 3-pinnatifid, brown when dried, pentagonal, ca. 60 × 60 cm, thinly papery, both surfaces glabrous, base cordate, apex acuminate; pinnae 4 or 5 pairs, subopposite, slightly oblique; rachises and costae brown-castaneous, occasionally with linear scales on abaxial side of rachises, densely hairy adaxially, sparsely hairy abaxially; basal pinnae largest, oblique-deltoid, 20-25 × ca. 20 cm, stalks ca. 3 cm, bases asymmetrical, rounded-cuneate, apices long acuminate, basiscopic pinnules obviously elongated and forming 1 pair of separate pinnules at base, pinnatipartite to broadly winged along costae; middle pinnae deltoid-lanceolate, 15-20 × 10-12 cm, bases symmetrical, rounded-cuneate, apices long acuminate, pinnatipartite to broadly winged along costae and forming falcate-lanceolate lobes; pinnules or lobes 8-10 pairs, interval 0.5-1 cm, sessile, basiscopic pinnules largest, falcate-lanceolate, 12-14 × 4.5-5 cm, pinnatipartite to 2/3; lobules 10 pairs, slightly oblique, interval ca. 2 mm, elliptic, 1.5-2 × ca. 1 cm, obtuse, entire. Veins copiously anastomosing, with narrow areoles beside rachises and costae, included veinlets simple. Sori orbicular, terminal on included veinlets, in 1 row on each side of midrib of ultimate lobes; indusia brown, large, clypeate, membranous, entire, persistent. 2n = 80.

Tectaria griffithii is listed for China here with doubt. One of us (Christenhusz) studied a single specimen from China without precise locality (Matthew 110, K). Y. C. Wu et al. (Bull. Dept. Biol. Sun Yatsen Univ. 3: t. 23. 1932) recorded the species from Guangxi, but the description and plates represent Dictyocline wilfordii (Thelypteridaceae) and not a Tectaria. Ching (Sinensia 2(2): 20. 1931) recorded the species from Guizhou (Tatsing, Esquirol 2253), but we have not found these specimens. The Flora of Taiwan does not list this species, and Holttum (Fl. Males., Ser. 2, 2: 54-55. 1991) does not list it for China.

Valley forests; 100-800 m. Guizhou, Taiwan (Gaoxiong, Pingdong), ?Yunnan [Borneo, Cambodia, India (Assam, Sikkim), Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam].