Plants 8-18 cm tall. Rhizomes long and creeping, 2-2.5 mm in diam., densely scaly; scales spreading, dark brown or brown, ovate, 2-3 × 1.5-2 mm, margin with long and thick spines, apex with long awn; lumina large, isometrically polygonal. Fronds remote or approximate; stipe straw-colored, 0.4-5 cm; lamina when dried gray-green on abaxial surface, yellow-green or deep brown on adaxial surface, or brownish or greenish on both surfaces, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, (7-)15-30 × (0.6-)1-2.5 cm, widest at middle, thickly papery or thinly leathery, glabrous on both surfaces or abaxially sparsely scaly, base cuneate and decurrent, margins flat and straight, apex obtuse; main veins raised on both sides, veinlets obscure or raised on both sides. Sori often extending almost to base of lamina, midway between costa and margins or slightly closer to costa, elliptic or suborbicular, 2-3 mm in diam.; paraphyses deep brown, broadly lanceolate, 0.8-1 mm, as long as wide, margins with long and thick spines; lumina large and transparent.