Plants terrestrial, 0.5-1 m tall. Rhizome erect, stout, 1.5-2 cm in diam., scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales dark brown and light glossy, pale at margins, linear-lanceolate, 6-7 mm, membranous, ciliate, apices long acuminate and curled. Fronds clustered, subdimorphic; fertile fronds rather tall, slightly narrowed; stipe stramineous, 20-60 cm, 4-5 mm in diam., grooved, glabrescent. Lamina simple or trifurcate to odd-pinnate, dark green or brown when dried, ovate to oblong, 30-60 × 25-30 cm, papery, abaxially pubescent, adaxially glabrous; rachises, costae, and lateral veins stramineous, glabrous adaxially, densely hairy abaxially, grooved adaxially and raised abaxially; terminal pinna simple or trifurcate, oblong, 18-20 cm, 7-9 cm wide at middle, entire or undulate, stalks 2-3 cm, bases slightly narrowed, rounded-cordulate, apices abruptly caudate; lateral pinnae 1-4 pairs, simple or basal pairs lobed, ovate-lanceolate, 18-20 × 6-8 cm, oblique, opposite, undulate to entire, interval 2-8 cm, bases gradually tapering, asymmetrical, cuneate, apices abruptly caudate; basal pinnae shortly stalked, sessile upward. Veinlets forming conspicuous subhexagonal areoles, raised on both sides, included veinlets forked. Sori orbicular, terminal on included veinlets or anastomosing veins, in 3-5 irregular rows between lateral veins; indusia brown, orbicular, membranous, entire, caducous.
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Caudex suberect; stipe to 45 cm long, dull reddish, minutely hairy, basal scales to 10 × 1.5 mm, dark with a thinner ± fringed margin; lamina to 50 cm long consisting of a pinna-like apex (sometimes fused with the uppermost pinnae) and 1-4 pairs of opposite pinnae; middle pinnae to 25 × 5 cm, short-stalked, rounded to subcordate on their basiscopic bases, more narrowly rounded on the acroscopic side, apex abruptly short-acuminate, margins entire; basal pinnae with stalks 15 mm long, bearing a large basiscopic lobe; main veins 6-8 mm apart along costae, at a broad angle and upcurved, cross-veins rather regular between them; lower surface of costae and main veins short-hairy, short erect hairs also present between veins, upper surface of costae glabrous or sparsely hairy; sori small, at maximum development 4 or 5 in a row on each side of cross-veins, mainly on veins which surround areoles; indusia thin, rather small, shrivelling; n = 80 in Sri Lanka and S India.
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