Rhizome creeping or ascending, stiff, 1-1.5 cm in diam., apex scaly; scales shiny castaneous, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 8 × 3 mm, firmly papery. Fronds remote or approximate, 0.4-1.1 m; stipe ochraceous or amber, 20-60 cm, 4-8 mm in diam., base with a tuft of imbricate scales similar to those on rhizome, upward sparsely scaly or glabrescent and glossy; lamina 3-pinnate(-pinnatifid), dark brown when dried, ovate-oblong or ovate-pentagonal, 20-60 × 25-45 cm, papery, base rounded, cordate, or hastate, apex caudate, with a conform terminal pinna, rachis sparsely scaly as distal portion of stipe or glabrescent; pinnae (1-)3-6(or 7) pairs, alternate, with 1-1.5 cm stalk, obliquely spreading; lowest pinna deltoid-ovate, 20-25 × 15-22 cm, apex with a conform terminal pinnule; primary pinnules 15-25 pairs, basal 1 or 2 pairs elongated and with ca. 1 cm stalk, distally sessile; elongated primary pinnules with secondary pinnules 10-20 pairs, shortly stalked or sessile, spreading, oblong, 1-2.5 × 0.5-0.8 cm, base acroscopically truncate, basiscopically cuneate, apex obtuse, margin especially on acroscopic side lobed or serrate, aristate, proximal pair(s) sometimes longer and deeply pinnatifid; upper 1 or 2(or 3) pairs of pinnae with basal pinnules elongated; axes and veins of ultimate segments occasionally with minute brown lanceolate scales abaxially. Sori terminal on veinlets, 3-5 pairs per ultimate pinnule, medial between margin and midvein of ultimate segment; indusia brown, membranous, entire, and fugacious.