Microlepia wilfordii T. Moore, Index Fil. 299. 1861, based on Davallia rhomboidea Hooker, Sec. Cent. Ferns, t. 48. 1860, not Wallich ex Kunze (1850); Coptidipteris wilfordii (T. Moore) Nakai & Momose; Davallia wilfordii (T. Moore) Baker.

Plants ca. 30 cm tall. Rhizome slender and long creeping, black, with sparse, brown, articulate, long hairs. Fronds distichous, scattered or nearly caespitose; stipe ca. 14 cm, only ca. 1.5 mm in diam., black-chestnut-brown at base, with same long hairs as on rhizome, red-brown upward, or straw-colored, glabrous, shiny; lamina light green or grass-green when dried, 2- or 3-pinnatisect, oblong-lanceolate, ca. 27 × 6-8 cm, thinly herbaceous, glabrous throughout, acuminate or caudate at apex; pinnae 12-14 pairs, alternate, 2-3 cm apart, oblique upward, with stalk 3-5 mm, ovate, broadly lanceolate, or lanceolate, 2-6 × 1-2.5 cm, pinnatisect or bipinnatisect, acuminate or caudate at apex; pinnules ovate-oblong, 1-1.5 cm, less than 1 cm wide, anadromous, cuneate at base, decurrent, oblique upward, pinnatisect or coarsely serrate; ultimate pinnae entire, 2- or 3-forked and shortly acuminate at apex. Midrib obscure, lateral veins slender and obvious, pinnate and furcate, each lobule with one veinlet, not reaching margin, with obvious fusiform hydathode at apex; rachis straw-colored, rounded abaxially, grooved adaxially. Sori orbicular, on ultimate pinna axil, or terminal on acroscopic lobules; indusium light green, half cup-shaped, erose at rim, glabrous.

The authors have not seen material of Davallia wilfordii var. contracta Christ (Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s., 4: 87-88. 1897).

● Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.