Stipe and rachis dark chestnut-brown below, yellow-brown or green at apex, bearing abundant glandular and non-glandular hairs; stipe 20–100 cm long, 5–15 mm diam. Lamina broadly ovate to broadly elliptic, 35–135 (–180) cm long, 35–100 (–180) cm wide, 4-or 5-pinnate at base, with stout colourless glandular and non-glandular 0.2–1 mm long hairs on undersurface. Primary pinnae in 15–30 pairs; longest 20–70 (–107) cm long, 14–45 (–70) cm wide. Longest secondary pinnae 7–30 (–50) cm long, 3–15 (–20) cm wide, decreasing markedly in size along primary pinnae. Longest tertiary pinnae 2–8 (–13) cm long, 1–3.5 (–6) cm wide, with winged midribs. Quaternary pinnae 7–16 (–35) mm long, 2–6 (–15) mm wide, often divided to midribs. Veins ending in apices of ultimate pinnules. Sori lacking paraphyses, protected by reflexed tapering 0.3–0.8 mm wide flaps which are green at the base and membranous at the apex. Spores pale, echinate, 38–40 × 24–26 µm. [See also Green (1994: 587).]
Grows in moist, open situations or along stream banks, including as a presumed glass-house escape. On Norfolk Island grows in disturbed sites and open rocky places (Green 1994: 587).
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