Plants 20-60(-90) cm tall. Rhizome shortly creeping to erect, scaly; scales dark brown, narrowly triangular with filiform apex, entire. Fronds caespitose; stipe dull or semi-shiny, grayish brown, 10-35(-45) cm, scaly at base, upward subglabrous, semiterete and adaxially grooved; lamina oblong to elliptic, 10-35(-45) × 8-16 cm, pinnate; pinnae (2-)5-10(-15) pairs, opposite or subopposite, distinctly stalked, lower pinnae not or only slightly reduced, median pinnae 4-10(-15) × 1.2-2.2(-2.8) cm, rhomboid to broadly lanceolate, ± falcate, base nearly symmetrical, cuneate, acroscopic side sometimes subauriculate, basiscopic side narrowly cuneate, margin serrate often with long teeth, apex acuminate, terminal pinna conform with lateral pinnae but often wider than subapical ones or with ascending pinnalike lobes at its base, 5-11 × 2-5(-10) cm. Costa abaxially flat to slightly raised, adaxially with a longitudinal furrow (grooved). Veins prominent, several times forked, subflabellate, almost parallel, reaching margin. Frond (sub)leathery, dark brown when dry, pinna stalk and base with small dark brown scales becoming subglabrous when old; rachis dark gray-brown, semiterete and adaxially grooved. Sori linear, 1-3 cm, on acroscopic veins; indusia brown, linear, entire, opening toward costa. Plants sexual polyploid: 2n = 144, 216, or 360.
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Lithophytic or most commonly epiphytic fern with semi-erect or pendent fronds. Rhizome short-creeping, scaly. Stipe and rachis dark red-brown, glossy, brittle, sparsely scaly; stipe 9–65 cm long, 1–3 mm diam. Lamina narrowly elliptic, pinnate, 15–120 cm long, 5–26 cm wide, dark green and glossy above, pale green and dull below with prominent veins, sparsely scaly. Pinnae in 10–40 pairs, narrowly ovate to ovate to lanceolate or falcate, sometimes with an enlarged basal acroscopic lobe; bases unequally cuneate, shortly stalked; margins doubly serrate; apices acuminate; longest pinnae near middle, 3–17 cm long, 5–27 mm wide, gradually reducing upwards and abruptly contracted to an acuminate pinnatifid apical portion. Sori often slightly curved away from midrib, to 20 mm long. Perispores dark with smooth broad ridges and smooth lacunae; exospores 28.2–37 × 17.3–21 μm.
Epiphytic on large forest trees, often in forks of branches or at base of Asplenium australasicum (J.Sm.) Hook. or Platycerium Desv. clumps, on tree fern trunks, fallen logs, or on rocks, mossy boulders and in crevices; in brush, open Eucalyptus forest or in wet sclerophyll or dense rainforest.
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