Plants 45-60 cm tall. Stipe straw-colored to light chestnut-colored, 25-30 cm × ca. 2.5 mm, lustrous; scales dark brown, lanceolate; lamina abaxially grayish green, adaxially brownish green, broadly ovate, nearly as long as wide, 23-28 cm, 2-pinnate, herbaceous when dry, abaxially pilose, adaxially sparsely pilose along costae and costules, strigose between veins (hairs sunken, leaving small pits on lamina when shed); rachis straw-colored or with occasional brown spots abaxially. Pinnae 2 or 3(or 4) pairs, basal pair larger than adjacent ones, deltoid-ovate, 15-19 × 8-14 cm; distal pinnae simple (rarely second pair bifurcate), gradually somewhat reduced; second pair of pinnae oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 15-20 × 3-4 cm, base rounded or rounded-cuneate, somewhat unequal, apex abruptly caudate-acuminate. Pinnules 8-15 × 2-3 cm, shortly stalked, base rounded, apex caudate-acuminate. Margins of pinnae and pinnules serrate, teeth sharp and deltoid. Veins free; hydathodes slightly thickened, extending to base of teeth. Sori extending to 3 mm from pinna margin.