Davallia griffithiana Hooker, Sp. Fil. 1: 168. 1845; Davallia henryana Baker; D. platylepis Baker; D. tyermanii (T. Moore) Baker; Humata griffithiana var. tyermanii (T. Moore) Tagawa; H. henryana (Baker) Ching; H. platylepis (Baker) Ching; H. tyermanii T. Moore; Leucostegia griffithiana (Hooker) J. Smith.

Rhizome 3-6 mm in diam. (without scales), not white waxy. Scales whitish, brown, or red-brown, without pale border, narrowed evenly toward apex, curling backward or not, peltate, 6-9 × 1-1.5 mm, without multiseptate hairs, with marginal setae at least in distal part. Stipe adaxially grooved, 6-24 cm, glabrous or with few scales; lamina compound, bipinnate or tripinnate toward base and in middle part, deltoid and broadest toward base, 10-32 × 8-27 cm, glabrous, not or slightly dimorphic. Longest petiolules 2-10 mm; pinnae deltoid or linear; longest pinnae 6-16 × 4-8 cm; pinnules of at least larger pinnae anadromous, linear-oblong or narrowly ovate; longest pinnules 25-100 × 7-60 mm; ultimate pinnae narrowly ovate, lobed almost to midrib or only halfway toward midrib; ultimate segments or lobes obtuse or acute without a tooth, 2-5 × 2-3 mm. Rachises and costae glabrous. Margins of each pinna not thickened. Veins in sterile ultimate lobes simple, forked or pinnate, not reaching margin; false veins not present. Sori separate, borne several or single on a segment, at forking point of veins; indusium attached at base and only part of sides, semicircular, ± as wide as long, ca. 1 × 1-2 mm, upper margin not elongated, truncate or slightly rounded, separated from or even with lamina margin; lamina generally extending into a tooth at both sides or only at outside of a sorus, or not extending into teeth beyond a sorus.

Humata henryana, H. platylepis, and H. tyermanii were treated as separate species in FRPS (6(1): 194-197. 1999), but comparisons of the types of Davallia henryana, D. platylepis, and H. tyermanii suggest that they all belong to the same species, H. griffithiana.

Wet forests, climbing on tree trunks or rocks; near sea level to 2200 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India (Assam, Manipur), Japan (Okinawa), Laos, Myanmar (Kengtung), Vietnam (Tonkin)].