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Stipe and rachis dark chestnut-brown at base, yellow-brown at apex, bearing sparse non-glandular hairs or ± glabrous; stipe to 130 cm long, 10–12 mm diam., woody. Lamina broadly elliptic or broadly ovate, to 180 cm long and 100 cm wide, 3-or 4-pinnate at base, glabrous above, with abundant colourless (occasionally red-brown) spreading non-glandular hairs along midribs and veins of undersurface. Longest primary pinnae to 85 cm long and 40 cm wide. Secondary pinnae arising at wide angles; to 24 cm long and 8 cm wide; midribs of primary and secondary pinnae lacking free lobes or wings. Tertiary pinnae decreasing gradually in length on each secondary pinna; longest to 40 mm long and 13 mm wide, sometimes with winged midribs. Quaternary pinnae to 6 mm long and 2 mm wide; ultimate pinnules linear, straight, acute, entire, adnate. Indusium to 5 mm wide, membranous, fimbriate, hairy. [Sporangia and spores not seen in Australian material.]
Rhizome c. 7 mm in diameter when dried; hairs 1-1.5 mm long. Fronds erect, 0.5-1.5 m tall, basal pinnae as long as to half as long as lamina and with pinnae ascending or held horizontally; stipe woody, brown, up to 0.4 m long, swollen just above ground level, glabrous above this level; lamina deltate to oblong-ovate, 3-to 4-pinnate; pinnae ovate-deltate to oblong, acute, up to 0.4 x 0.15 m; pinnule segments deeply pinnatifid in larger pinnae into obtuse narrowly oblong lobes, upper surface glabrous to thinly pubescent, under surface subglabrous or thinly pubescent to densely pu-bescent-tomentose with pale brown hairs. Sori elongate, submarginal on ultimate segments; pseudo-indusium membranous, ciliate, c. 0.5 mm wide.
Petioles scattered along creeping stems, 0.3--3.5 m, shallowly to deeply grooved adaxially, base not strongly distinct from stem. Blades broadly deltate, papery to leathery, sparsely to densely hairy abaxially, rarely glabrous. Pinnae often opposite to subopposite [alternate]; proximal pinnae often prolonged basiscopically, each proximal pinna nearly equal to distal part of leaf in size and dissection (except in var. caudata ). Segments alternate, numerous.
Perennial with deep, subterranean rhizome. Fronds erect, to 1.5 m long, stipe glabrous at maturity, lamina coriaceous, deltate, 3-or 4-pinnate, pinnule segments deeply pinnatifid into obtuse, oblong lobes, glabrous or thinly pubescent above, densely pubescent-tomentose beneath. Sori elongate, submarginal, pseudo-indusium ciliate.
A fern. The leaves are fleshy and simple. They are leathery. The spores are on spikes at the ends of the plant.
