Rhizome short-creeping, bearing fronds very close together, apex densely covered with almost black hairs. Juvenile fronds once dichotomous, each branch bearing a deeply palmatisect leaflet, lobes subequal, base cordate, edges rather irregularly serrate and somewhat thickened. Rachis of climbing fronds hardly 2 mm diameter, glabrous or nearly so; primary rachis-branches very short, ending in a somewhat projecting dormant bud covered with light brown hairs having slightly swollen bases; secondary rachis-branches bearing sterile leaflets unbranched or more commonly once dichotomous, those bearing fertile leaflets usually sub-pinnate with a few tertiary branches; sterile leaflets 10-18 cm long, simple or forked (less often 3-lobed), usually strongly cordate and auriculate at the base on one side (sometimes with a separate rounded leaflet replacing the cordate base), when forked the lamina lobed to within 1 cm of the base, leaflets or lobes 1-2 cm wide, tapering, acute, irregularly doubly serrate, edge somewhat thickened, surfaces glabrous, sometimes sparingly warty; fertile leaflets usually with the lamina reduced to a narrow wing (0.2 mm wide) along the costae and along each vein and its branches; tertiary fertile branches deltoid in outline (5 cm or more wide at the base), with quaternary leaflets of increasing length below each terminal one; sorophores 2-4 mm long, indusia glabrous; spores minutely verrucose on an unevenly undulating surface (always?).
"Climbing small trees to a height of about 12 feet. Quite common in low wet places along the coast" (Russell, on specimen from E. New Guinea). Collections have also been made inland, at altitudes up to 1000 m.
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