Plants 15-20 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, 1.5-2.5 mm in diam., densely scaly; scales spreading, deep brown, iridescent, transparent, lanceolate with broadly ovate base, 2.5-8 × 0.6-1.6 mm, clathrate, margins with thick and long spines, apex long caudate. Fronds up to 1 cm apart; stipe straw-colored or sometimes reddish including on main veins, 2.5-5 cm, 1-1.5 mm in diam.; lamina abaxially grayish green or brownish, adaxially grayish green when dried, oblanceolate to almost linear, 10-25(-35) × (0.3-)0.5-1.5 cm, widest from middle to apical 1/3, thickly leathery, scales rarely seen, lanceolate, with transparent lumina, lamina base attenuate, long decurrent, margin narrowly revolute, apex long caudate; costa raised on both sides, veinlets obscure. Sori throughout lower 1/3 of lamina, midway between costa and margins, orbicular or elliptic; paraphyses brown, stellate with long digitate spines, 0.3-0.5 mm in diam.; lumina dense, thick and indistinct.