Stems compact to short-creeping, erect to horizontal, with few to many persistent petiole bases of unequal lengths; scales mostly uniformly brown but at least some bicolored with dark central stripe and pale brown margins, narrowly lanceolate. Leaves 5--35 × 1.5--6 cm. Petiole light brown or straw-colored when mature, occasionally darker at very base, not articulate above base, relatively brittle and easily shattered. Blade lanceolate, usually 2-pinnate proximally, sparsely to moderately glandular, never viscid; glandular hairs with thin stalks and slightly expanded tips; rachis with scattered glandular hairs and hairlike scales. Pinnae elongate-deltate to elliptic, longer than wide, often attenuate to a narrowly acute apex; largest pinnae with 7--18 pairs of widely spaced pinnules; abaxial and adaxial surfaces somewhat glandular, lacking nonglandular hairs or scales. Pinnules dentate, often shallowly lobed; margins often lustrous adaxially, somewhat thickened, with occasional glands, appearing ciliate due to presence of multicellular translucent projections on teeth that are often prolonged to form twisted filaments. Vein tips usually enlarged to form whitish hydathodes visible adaxially. Indusia of narrow, filamentous segments, these uniseriate for most of length, composed of ± isodiametric cells, often greatly surpassing mature sporangia. Spores averaging 37--44 µm. 2 n = 76.
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