Trunk erect, ca. 1 m tall, ca. 6 cm in diam.; lowest pinnae usually reduced. Stipe brown to dark purple-brown, 36-65 cm, ca. 1 cm in diam.; spiny, with both long, dark brown scales and minute brown scales, or scales pale; rachis green, spiny, without scales; lamina 2-pinnate-pinnatifid, 1.5-2 m; pinnae 30-40 cm, lower pinnae obviously shorter; pinnules 7-10 × 1.3-2.1 cm, subsessile; margin of pinnule segments serrulate; veinlets 10 or 11 pairs, forked; abaxial side of lamina glabrous, with very few thin small scales along costae; adaxial surface setose along costae and costules. Sori orbicular, at forks of veinlets; indusia very small, scalelike.