Stems decumbent to erect, much branched from base, stout, 10--20 mm diam. (including hardened, persistent leaf bases); scales bicolored, dense, broadly lanceolate to linear, to 6 × 2 mm. Leaves densely tufted, green over winter, persistent after withering; sterile leaves spreading, 3--17 cm; fertile leaves erect, 5--25 cm; hairs small, appressed, cylindric, scattered along grooves of petiole and along costae and costules of adaxial blade surface. Petiole green to straw-colored, dark brown on proximal 1/8 or less, 1--2 mm wide, firm and strawlike, not collapsed; scales bicolored or ± concolored, becoming sparse distally. Blade deltate to ovate-lanceolate, all 2--3-pinnate, somewhat leathery, opaque; hydathodes sunken below leaf surface. Segments of sterile leaves oblong to ovate-lanceolate, bases cuneate, distal 2/3--1/2 of segments crenate to dentate, often somewhat more deeply incised every 2d tooth; segments of fertile leaves horizontal to ascending, strongly differentiated from those of sterile leaves, linear, 3--12 × 1--2 mm; margins of fertile segments revolute, covering sporangia. Sporangia in sori that coalesce at maturity. 2 n = 60.
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