Plants terrestrial, 60-150 cm tall or more. Rhizome creeping, ascending, or erect, short, thick, densely scaly at apex and stipe bases; scales stiff, dark brown to nearly purple, 8-10 mm, linear-lanceolate, entire, apices long acuminate. Fronds clustered; stipe dark brown or castaneous to black, glossy, 40-60 cm, 4-5 mm in diam. at base, minutely brown pubescent throughout. Lamina bipinnate to tripinnatifid, deep green when dried, subpentagonal or triangular-ovate, 30-60 × 25-40 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous; rachises castaneous to black, pubescent, costa and costules raised abaxially, castaneous, glabrescent; terminal pinna 3-lobed or simple; terminal lobe ovate-lanceolate, entire or undulate to pinnatifid, base cordate to cuneate, lateral lobes like terminal lobe, opposite, rather small; lateral pinnules 2 or 3 pairs, opposite, interval 4-6(-10) cm, oblique; basal pinnules pinnate or bipinnatifid, 10-15 cm, rather large, stalks long; middle pinnules 3-lobed to simple, becoming sessile toward apices, entire or undulate, broadly lanceolate, 8-10 cm, bases cordate, apices caudate. Veinlets forming subhexagonal areoles with cross veins, included veinlets simple or forked. Sori small, orbicular, located at coupling veinlets, in irregular rows between adjacent main veins, exindusiate.
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Caudex short-creeping to suberect; stipe to 50 cm long, very dark, glossy above the base, basal scales narrow, firm, very dark; lamina to 50 cm long, 'dark bluish green' when living, consisting of a deeply trilobed apex and 1-3 pairs of pinnae; upper pinnae sessile, subentire, with ± dilated and auricled subcordate base; basal pinnae of large fronds stalked, to 24 cm long, with 1 pair of free pinnules like the upper pinnae or with falcate acute basal auricles, the distal part trilobed; main veins in pinnae upcurved, cross-veins irregular, small veins slender, prominent; hairs 0.1 mm long present on lower surface of costae, sparse and variable elsewhere; hairs on upper surface of costae short and slender, fewer on main veins, a few near margins; sori all on connected veins, small and unevenly arranged, often ± confluent, exindusiate; spores cristate or with many small irregular wings.
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