Plants 10-15 cm tall. Rhizome slender and creeping, wirelike, 1-1.5 mm in diam., densely scaly, older parts naked; scales dark brown, basifixed with a tuft of hairs at point of attachment, lanceolate, 2-2.5 × 0.4-0.8 mm; lumina at base large and transparent, slightly isodiametric, upward abruptly narrowed, rectangular, cell wall thickened, base subrounded, margin denticulate, apex acuminate or extended into long awn. Fronds (0.3-)2-4 cm apart; stipe straw-colored or brownish to dark brown, 2-8 cm, 0.5-0.8 mm in diam., smooth and glabrous; lamina linear-lanceolate, (4-)8-25 × 0.3-1.5 cm, widest 1/3-1/2 way from base, stiffly papery to subleathery, abaxially glabrous or with scattered scales, base cuneate, decurrent, margin slightly revolute, apex shortly acuminate or obtuse; costa raised on both sides, veinlets obscure. Sori along distal 1/3-1/2 of lamina, midway between costa and margins or nearer costa, orbicular; paraphyses dark brown, stellate or suborbicular, less than 0.3 mm in diam., lumina irregular, transparent or opaque.