Woodwardia unigemmata (Makino) Nakai

Plants terrestrial. Stems stout, short-creeping to suberect, densely clothed at the apex with large, broadly to narrowly lanceolate, orange-brown scales; trophopods present. Fronds spreading, wintergreen and coriaceous, clustered near the stem apex, gemmiferous on the rhachis by the presence of one or two non-articulate scaly buds at or very near the frond apex, these gemmae usually developing 2-5 fronds and numerous roots while still attached. Stipes 32-100 cm long, stramineous to orange-brown, becoming darker toward the base, expanded at base, with two large adaxial vascular bundles and an arc of several smaller abaxial vascular bundles, densely scaly at the base and bearing scurfy remnants of multicellular glands, hairs, and scales distally, the scales sometimes leaving distinct scars after abscising, especially near the stipe base. Laminae 30-165 cm long, narrowly ovate, pinnate-pinnatifid, dark red to bronze or brown, glandular and scaly during emergence, becoming dark green and glabrous at maturity; pinnae in 11-16 pairs, the medial ones 18-61 cm and 2-10 cm, alternately arranged, deeply pinnatifid, lanceolate and acute at apex, basally ± symmetric about the costae, pinna lobes narrowly deltate, acute, separated from each other by a distinct sinus, coarsely serrulate along a strongly involute margin. Sori 1.5-3 mm long, linear-elongate to lunate, deeply immersed in the lamina, confined to the primary areoles of the costules; indusia cartilaginous with a thickened basal flange and a membranous conduplicate margin, vaulted, opening along a basal hinge like the lid of a box upon dehiscence of the sporangia. Spores 64, 30-35 by 2-23 µm (exclusive of the perispore), surrounded by a tightly appressed perispore presenting a reticulum of raised narrow ridges and rugulose expanses between the ridges, ornamented with aggregations of rods and cristae.

Mixed deciduous, mixed deciduous-coniferous, and subtropical evergreen forests, nearly always occurring in humid, lightly shaded areas, often where the soil is shallow and rocky. Altitude 0-3000 m.

The starch in the rhizome is used for cakes and noodles.