Rhizome long creeping, 5-8 mm in diam., stiff, densely scaly; scales reddish brown, linear-subulate, ca. 5 × 1 mm, base remotely fimbriate, apex attenuate or filiform, and firmly membranous. Fronds remote, 40-80 cm; stipe 21-40 cm, 2-3 mm in diam., base with dense scales similar to those on rhizome, upward with appressed filiform scales; lamina 3-pinnate(-pinnatifid), shiny green or brownish when dried, ovate-pentagonal or deltoid-pentagonal, 20-35 × 14-25 cm, papery or leathery, base cuneate or subtruncate, apex abruptly narrowed and elongated acute, rachis scaly as distal portion of stipe; pinnae (3 or)4-6(-10) pairs, alternate, with 0.5-1.2 cm stalk, obliquely spreading; lowest pinnae deltoid, 12-18 × 8-12 cm, base broadly cuneate, apex caudate-acuminate; primary pinnules 15-22 pairs, basal basiscopic 1 or 2(-4) and acroscopic 1(-3) elongated (to ca. 12 × 3 cm and shortly stalked), distally abruptly shortened and subsessile; secondary pinnules deltoid-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.7 cm, base acroscopically truncate and auriculate, basiscopically cuneate, apex acute, margin serrate to deeply pinnatifid, aristate; upper 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae with at least basal pair of pinnules elongated and pinnatifid to pinnate; remaining pinnae deltoid-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; axes and veins of ultimate segments with minute brown linear-subulate scales abaxially. Sori terminal on veinlets, 5-8 pairs per ultimate pinnule, medial between midvein and margin; indusia brown, membranous, entire or shortly ciliate. 2n = 82*.
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Rhizome long-creeping, densely scaly; scales narrowly triangular to linear, 4–10 mm long, 0.2–0.8 mm wide, brown, with a long-attenuate apex. Fronds spaced along the rhizome. Stipe 15–60 cm long, scaly. Lamina pentagonal, 23–45 cm long, 14–30 cm wide, dark green and glossy above, paler and glossy beneath, coriaceous, somewhat prickly; apex abruptly acuminate; main rachis pale, sparsely scaly. Ultimate segments ovate, 5–20 mm long, 3–8 mm wide; base unequally cuneate; margins with long sharp teeth; apex with a short point. Sori terminal on basal branches on the apical side of the secondary veins; indusium reniform, with a dark centre. See also Green (1994: 601).
Common in rainforest, often near streams, also on rocky slopes, sometimes in colonies. Very common in drier parts of forests on Norfolk Island; known from only one collection on Lord Howe Island (Green 1994).
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