Rhizome a ground fern with erect radial caudex, (dimensions not known but judging by the thickness of the frond stipes the caudex must be massive); scales narrowly elliptic c. 3 by 0.3 cm, entire, brown to reddish brown, sometimes shiny. Fronds dimorphic, sterile fronds spreading and arched, mature fronds 110-250 by 20-62 cm; fertile fronds erect and with longer stipes but usually the lamina is of smaller dimensions. Stipes 50-100 cm, smooth, green, brown or pale fawn, with persistent and, up to c. 20 cm above the base, dense linear-narrowly elliptic scales 1-2 by 0.2-0.3 cm at base, tapering evenly from a short basal region to a fine attenuate hair-like apex, mostly entire, pale to dark brown. Lamina ovate-deltoid, 1-pinnate, in living material mid to dark green and glossy or semiglossy on adaxial surface, slightly paler and not so glossy on abaxial surface, young fronds red, lamina widest 3-5 pairs of pinnae above the base, 28-60 pairs of pinnae; fertile lamina of smaller dimensions and dark brown with little or no photosynthetic surface. Rhachis and costae green, brown or pale fawn, scales linear-narrowly elliptic to triangular, 0.6-1.6 by 0.1-0.2 cm (costal scales to 1 cm long), tapering to apex, mostly entire, varying from silvery-white to pale reddish brown, and occasionally with a few cells with slightly darker point of attachment. Sterile pinnae oblong-narrowly elliptic, rounded at rhachis but sometimes tapering to a short petiole and always on mature fronds tapering to attenuate apices, on mature plants 20-33 by 1.3-2.6 cm, shortly petiolate to subpetiolate or sessile, uppermost few pairs often basiscopically adnate, papery to coarsely papery, margins often wavy, never revolute, usually finely toothed for most of their length becoming serrate to dentate towards their apices, basal pinnae slightly reduced in length, pinnae in the lower half of the lamina set at right angles to the rhachis (more distal pinnae are at an angle of c. 45-60°), terminal pinnae usually a little longer than the subterminal few pairs; veins 0.09 mm apart, single or once furcate terminating in a clavate gland most of which are in the axils of the serrations. Fertile pinnae linear, 11-22 by 0.3-0.55 cm, sessile or shortly petiolate (petioles up to 2 cm), sometimes basiscopically adnate for several pairs below the frond apex, costal scales mostly pale, sori covering underside of fertile pinnae, and extending to the pinnae bases at the rhachis but with a short sterile region at pinnae apices. Spores c. 72.1 by 54.6 µm (from 7 herbarium specimens), perine fenestrate to densely reticulate, coralline in appearance, exine smooth to scabrous.
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