Rhizome erect, up to 15 cm tall, densely scaly; scales brown, narrowly lanceolate, ca. 10 × 1 mm, thin, toothed at margin; fronds caespitose. Fertile fronds 60-120 cm; stipe brown-stramineous, 50-60 cm, 3-5 mm in diam. at base, sparsely scaly, upward glabrous or hairy; lamina 1-pinnate or 2-pinnate, deltoid or broadly lanceolate, 60-80 cm or longer, 30-60 cm wide, apex acuminate; pinnae 12-16 pairs, alternate, ascending, lower pinnae stipitate, broadly lanceolate, 16-20 × 6-9 cm, pinnatilobate or 1-pinnate; upper pinnae subsessile, linear-lanceolate, 6-10 × 1-2 cm, base truncate, margin serrate or pinnatilobate (lobes minutely serrate), apex acuminate; veins per lobes pinnate, veinlets 8-10 pairs, ascending, lower 2 or 3 pairs usually conjoined. Lamina stiffly herbaceous, glabrous or hairy, rachis glabrous or hairy; costae shallowly grooved, glabrous or occasionally with light brown short hairs. Sori mostly linear, slightly curved, from near midribs to laminar margin; indusia yellow-brown, linear, membranous, entire. Spore surface with large granular or tuberculate projections. 2n = 82.

Valley forests, beside brooks or streamlets; 100-1200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [tropical Asia, subtropical and tropical Polynesia].