Plants ca. 1 m tall. Rhizome long creeping. Fronds firmly leathery when dried; stipe yellowish brown, shiny, 40-50 cm, adaxially sulcate; lamina 3-pinnate-pinnatifid, oblong-triangular in outline, 50-60 × 60-80 cm, base rounded-cuneate, apex acuminate; pinnae 15-18 pairs, alternate, stalked (ca. 2 cm), slightly obliquely spreading, oblong-lanceolate, up to 35 × 11-15 cm, base cordate or subtruncate, apex long acuminate, caudate; pinnules ca. 30 pairs per pinna, alternate, sessile, broadly lanceolate, 5.5-7 × 1.5-2.5 cm, base truncate, spreading, apex caudate (1.5-2 cm) to acuminate; segments 12-14 pairs per pinna, linear, lateral ones ca. 10 × 2-2.5 mm, gradually wider upward, alternate, spreading, connate with costules, margins reflexed, serrulate, apex obtuse; middle pinnules similar to lower ones but narrower, apex caudate; apical pinnules linear, up to 30 × ca. 3 mm, not pinnate (entire); apical pinnae lanceolate, pinnate; ultimate pinnules linear, ca. 2.5 mm wide, apically obtuse; veins not conspicuous, hairy abaxially, veinlets somewhat grooved; rachis, costae, and costules shiny, glabrous, adaxially grooved; rachis yellowish brown, costae and costules green.
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Stipe and rachis chestnut-brown at base, yellow-brown at apex, bearing sparse non-glandular hairs or ± glabrous; stipe 15–90 cm long, 3–8 mm diam., woody. Lamina broadly elliptic or broadly ovate, 25–c. 150 cm long, 20–c. 100 cm wide, 3-or 4-pinnate at base, glabrous above, with sparse red-brown hairs on midribs and dense colourless appressed non-glandular hairs along veins of undersurface. Longest primary pinnae arising at narrow angles, longest 15–65 cm long, 8–40 cm wide. Secondary pinnae arising at narrow angles; longest 5–26 cm long, 15–130 mm wide; basal one often much-reduced; midribs of primary and secondary pinnae narrowly winged. Tertiary pinnae decreasing markedly in length along secondary pinna; longest 7–70 mm long, 2–20 mm wide, with winged midribs. Quaternary pinnae to 12 mm long and 4 mm wide; ultimate pinnules linear, straight, acute, entire, adnate and decurrent on 1 side. Indusium more than 0.2 mm wide, membranous, entire, glabrous. Spores dark, granulose. [See also Green (1994) for Norfolk Island.]
A fern. It grows 0.8-1.5 m tall. The frond is rigid and greatly divided. The leaflets are small and narrow. They are dark green and leathery. The edges of the leaves tends to turn under. There are long rhizomes (underground stems) covered with fine brown hairs. The spores are beneath the fronds. These are very small.
It is a temperate plant. It grows in undergrowth in wet dense forests above 400-500 m altitude in the tropics. It does best in moist places. In Northeastern India it grows between 1,600-3,200 m above sea level. It suits hardiness zones 8-11. Tasmania Herbarium.
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Forms extensive colonies in damp sandy areas, pasture, on roadside verges and forest margins, in open sclerophyll forest and in forest clearings. On Norfolk Island, common in open areas and neglected pastures (Green 1994: 590).
The young unfurled fonds are eaten as a vegetable. They should be soaked in water for 24 hours and dried before being cooked and eaten. The young underground rhizomes are also eaten. It is ground to a paste and can be mixed with wheat or barley flour. The roots are roasted, crushed into a paste and then baked. CAUTION: Bracken has been linked with stomach cancer.
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