Davallia hookeriana Wallich ex Hooker, Sp. Fil. 1: 172. 1845; D. phanerophlebia Baker; Microlepia hookeriana var. marginalis (Copeland) Tagawa; M. paucipinnata B. S. Wang; M. phanerophlebia (Baker) C. Christensen; Nephrolepis marginalis Copeland; Saccoloma hookerianum (Wallich ex Hooker) Fée; Scypholepia hookeriana (Wallich ex Hooker) J. Smith.

Plants terrestrial, ca. 80 cm tall. Rhizome long and creeping, 3.5-5 mm in diam., with dense long red-brown or brown hairs. Fronds remote, 1-2[-5] cm apart; stipe brown-straw-colored, [10-]20-30 cm, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., densely gray-brown villous; rachis and stalks with same hairs; lamina green when dried abaxially, black-green adaxially, 1-pinnate, broadly lanceolate to narrowly oblong in outline, 40-50 × 11-15 cm, base ± narrowed, apex long caudate; pinnae 20-40 pairs, opposite or alternate, basally 3-4 cm apart, shortly stalked to distally sessile, lower pinnae smaller, slightly reflexed; middle pinnae linear-lanceolate or falcate, 6-12 × 1-1.5 cm, herbaceous, abaxially grayish villous on veins, adaxially densely softly brown hairy on lobule midribs, each vein with sparse long hairs, base rounded-cuneate or asymmetrically hastate, both sides somewhat auriculate, acroscopic lobe larger, margin undulate-denticulate, distally serrate, often crispate, apex acuminate; terminal pinna to 15 cm, similar to lateral pinnae but symmetrical, often subhastate. Veins obliquely arising from costa, dichotomous, with 1 veinlet per tooth. Sori terminal on slender veinlet, arranged in a line near margin; indusium becoming brown when old, hemitelioid, as long as wide or slightly wider, glabrous, persistent.

The name Microlepia hookeriana was first introduced by Wallich (Numer. List, no. 2684. 1831).

Forests, damp places; below 100-1100 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Borneo, N India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Malaysia, Nepal, Vietnam].