Rhizome decumbent, dark brown, stout, densely scaly; scales dark brown, lanceolate, 1-4 cm, entire, membranous, apex fibriform. Stipes close, 20-55 cm, 3-6 mm in diam., base densely scaly; upper part of stipe and rachis sparsely covered with brown, broadly lanceolate scales; lamina deeply bipinnatifid, brown or slightly green when dry, ovate, 35-45(-70) × 15-45 cm, leathery, glabrous, base rounded-truncate, apex acuminate; pinnae 6-8 pairs, shortly stalked, lanceolate; lower and middle pinnae 10-30 × 4-9 cm, deeply pinnatifid to 2-3(-4) mm from costa, base asymmetrical with 1 basiscopic lobe lacking, apex acuminate, basal pinnae shortened; lobes 10-18 pairs, close, oblique, oblong, 3-5.5(-7) × 0.8-1(-1.3) cm, usually broadest at base, margin cuspidately serrulate, apex acute or acuminate; veins obvious, anastomosing to form 1 row of areoles along costae and 2 or 3 rows of discrete, polygonal areoles, remainder free to margin, simple or forked. Small bulbils borne on adaxial surfaces of pinna lobes or not. Sori occupying costular areoles, crescent-shaped or elliptic, sunken in rimmed depressions; indusia dark brown, thickly papery. 2n = 136.