Terrestrial fern. Rhizome short, erect; apical scales 3–4 mm long, long-pointed, dark brown. Fronds dimorphic, erect, not geniculate, glabrous, clustered; stipe 10–35 cm long. Lamina of sterile fronds deeply pinnatifid, overall outline elliptic, 30–80 cm long, 4.5–20 cm wide; pinnae 15–30 pairs (excluding the greatly diminished basal pairs), slightly dentate, especially towards apex, long-acute, the longest 2.5–10 cm long, 0.7–1.7 cm wide; median pinnae narrowing in their upper half; basal pinnae very gradually reduced for c. 1 /3 length of lamina, ± at right angles to the rachis, apices obtuse; major sterile pinnae narrowing in their upper half; veins often forking once near midrib. Lamina of fertile fronds pinnate, with 25–35 pairs of linear pinnae.
Not common; in valleys in the middle and upper slopes of Mount Bates. Grows in damp and shady places, stream bank sides (Director of National Parks (2010: 79), and references therein).
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