Plants 12-40 cm tall. Rhizome erect, densely covered with lanceolate brown scales. Stipe stramineous, 4-22 cm, 1-3 mm in diam. at base, scaly throughout; scales brown, lanceolate or linear, margins entire or ciliate, slightly twisted. Lamina oblong or triangular, 7-18 × 7-10 cm, base not contracted, 1-imparipinnate, apex acute. Lateral pinnae 1-5 pairs, alternate or subopposite, spreading, shortly stalked, deltoid-ovate or ovate, 3.5-5 × 2.5-3 cm, base cordate, margins entire, apex narrow and obtuse; terminal pinna deltoid-ovate, 3-8 × 3-5 cm, sometimes one or both lateral margins of lower portion bowed outward; leathery, abaxially with hairlike microscales, glabrous adaxially; venation pinnate, indistinct on both surfaces, veinlets anastomosing to form 3 or 4 rows of areoles on each side of midrib, each areole with 1 or 2 included veinlets. Sori throughout abaxial surface of pinnae; indusia margins weakly dentate.