Rhizome short-creeping to erect. Sterile and fertile fronds similar, 20-50 (-200) cm long, 4-20 (-34) cm wide. Stipe 8-70 cm long, brown to stramineous, blackening at base; basal scales subulate, entire, black; scale scars above. Lamina deltoid to ovate, pinnate, with 12-25 (-50) pairs of pinnae; rachis and costae stramineous to brown, glabrous or with sparse scales and hairs; sterile pinnae linear-lanceolate, 2-19 cm long, 6-15 mm wide, acuminate, adnate or semi-adnate throughout with broad bases with margins serrate; basal pinnae similar or longer and deflexed; fertile pinnae similar or slightly narrower. Spores 38 × 28 µm; perine scaberulous; exine smooth to granulose.
Common but intermittent in a broad range of plant communities and a variety of substrata, from sea-level to 1000 m, occasionally in forest margins or moist open heaths in montane areas. In drier regions it is confined to gullies and stream banks in sclerophyllous forest.
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