Latin capillus, hair,+ venereus, of Venus. Plants delicate, terrestrial or epipetric on shady banks. Rhizomes short-creeping, covered with tan scales. Fronds erect to spreading, 15-50 em long. Stipes dark brown to purplish black, glabrous, shiny. Blades 1- to 3-pinnate, regularly pinnately divided, lanceolate to ovate. Ultimate segments fanshaped, membranous, lower margins wedgeshaped with centrally attached pinnule stalks, outer margins rounded, finely toothed, often shallowly to deeply irregularly lobed. Veins extending into marginal teeth, except for those ending in sari. Sori 3-7 per segment, bar-shaped at tips of lobes.

Adiantum capillus-veneris may be recognized by its fan-shaped pinnae and pinnules, veins that end in marginal teeth, and particularly by the bar-shaped sori on the lobe tips.