Plants 15-30 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, ca. 2 mm in diam., densely scaly when young, later naked; scales black, lanceolate, 2.5-4.5 × 0.7-1.2 mm, margin dentate, very thick in texture, opaque except for marginal 1 or 2 rows of paler, transparent cells. Fronds ca. 0.5 cm apart; stipe straw-colored, more than 2 cm, 0.5-1 mm in diam., base with black scales; lamina grayish green when dried, linear-lanceolate, 15-30 × ca. 0.5 cm, widest at middle, leathery, with sparse, scattered small scales, base attenuate and decurrent nearly to base of stipe, margin distinctly revolute and distally undulate, apex shortly caudate; costa raised on both sides, veinlets obscure. Sori along distal 1/3 of lamina, midway between costa and margins, subelliptic, ca. 2 mm in diam., extending margins to give frond a moniliform appearance; paraphyses brown, orbicular, 0.4-0.7 mm in diam., margin entire; central lumina small, thick and opaque, marginal lumina transparent. Spores monolete, surface reticulate.