Plants evergreen. Rhizome erect, densely covered with lanceolate brown scales. Fronds 12-30 cm; stipe stramineous, 2-14 cm, 1-4 mm in diam. at base, scaly; scales brown, ovate and narrowly lanceolate. Lamina bipinnatifid or bipinnate, narrowly lanceolate, 10-26 × 2.5-5 cm, slightly contracted at base, acuminate; rachis without proliferous bulbils, abaxially scaly; scales brown, larger scales lanceolate, margins ciliate; smaller scales filiform, strongly ciliate at base. Pinnae 14-25 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis or slightly ascendant, ovate to narrowly ovate, 1.2-3 × 0.8-1.5 cm, obliquely cuneate to broadly cuneate, shortly stalked, pinnatifid or pinnate, acuminate. Lobes or pinnules 1-4 pairs, alternate, attached at right angles to rachis, broadly ovate or ovate, basal acroscopic lobes often free and largest, margins entire or sometimes serrulate, apices acuminate and spinulose; abaxially scaly; microscales filiform, strongly ciliate at base; frond texture leathery; venation pinnate on lobes or pinnules, slightly raised abaxially, indistinct adaxially. Sori in 1 row on each side of midrib; indusia present, slightly incised.