Rhizomes short, suberect, clothed with brownish, ovate-lanceolate scales. Fronds caespitose; fertile fronds 45-85 cm; stipe blackish brown at base, upward stramineous, 20-40 cm, 1-1.5 cm in diam., base sparsely scaly, upward glabrate; lamina 2-pinnate-pinnatipartite, narrowly oblong, 25-45 × 16-25 cm, base not narrowed, apex acuminate; pinnae 12-15 pairs, subopposite, stalked (stalk ca. 1.5 mm), spreading or slightly ascending; basal pinnae slightly or hardly shortened, broadly lanceolate, 9-10 × ca. 1.5 cm; middle and upper pinnae broadly lanceolate, 10-12 × 2.5-3.5 cm, base truncate or sometimes slightly overlaying rachis on acroscopic side, pinnate-pinnatipartite, apex acuminate; pinnules ca. 12 pairs, alternate, often reflexed, lanceolate, basal pinnules 1-1.5 cm × 5-6 mm, base inequilateral, truncate, parallel to rachis on acroscopic side, narrowly cuneate on basiscopic side, subsessile, pinnatipartite to wing of costules, apex acuminate; pinnule segments 6-9 pairs, acroscopic segment usually larger than basiscopic segment, oblong, margin with irregular teeth, apex obtuse; veins visible abaxially, pinnate in pinnule segments; lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs, simple, extending to tooth tip. Lamina herbaceous when dried, pale green, glabrate. Sori orbicular or horseshoe-shaped, 1-3 per segment (often 2 or 3 pairs in basal segments); indusia pale brown, horseshoe-shaped, thickly membranous, ciliate at margin, persistent. Perispore surface without folds, with granular ornamentation.