Plants 60-80 cm tall. Rhizome ascending, ca. 1 cm in diam., apex with brown scales. Fronds clustered (8-10 fronds); stipe dark straw-colored to brown, slightly lustrous, 25-45 cm, 2-3 mm in diam., glabrous, ± rough; rachis similar, scabrous, with sparse short hairs; lamina 2-pinnatipartite, oblong-ovate in outline, 30-40 × 20-25 cm; terminal pinna with linear-caudate tails, 12-15 × 0.8-1 cm, slightly decurrent at base, pectinately divided nearly to costa on both sides, sometimes not divided, apex acuminate; segments 0-8 pairs, alternate or subopposite, contiguous and slightly imbricate, subspreading, linear-lanceolate, 2.5-3 cm, entire and with cartilaginous edges; lateral pinnae 4-6 pairs, opposite, decumbent, stalked (4-6 cm), similar to terminal pinna, distal 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae shorter, sessile, linear, long caudate, oblique, on both sides segments 1-15 pairs, or at basiscopic side only 1 or 2 segments and other side without segment; costae prominent abaxially, dark straw-colored or castaneous, surfaces ± rough, with shorter hairs, deeply grooved adaxially, with spines along grooves; veins conspicuous on both surfaces, oblique, 2-forked; lamina gray-green, firmly herbaceous when dried, abaxially with sparse multicellular gray short hairs.