Plants 20-40 cm tall. Rhizome prostrate, short, ca. 3 mm in diam., apex scaly. Fronds clustered, dimorphic; sterile fronds as long as fertile fronds; stipe straw-colored, brown at base, slightly lustrous, slender, 15-30 cm × ca. 1 mm, smooth or rarely scabrous; lamina digitate, pinnae (3-)5-7, basal pairs nearly 3-forked, rarely or apical pinnae 2- or 3-forked, clustered; terminal pinna narrowly linear, 8-10(-15) × (0.2-)0.3-0.4(-0.8) cm, sessile or shortly stalked, base cuneate, not decurrent, apex acuminate; lateral pinnae similar, shorter, somewhat falcate, sessile, margins denticulate, midvein straw-colored, glabrous, abaxially convex, adaxially grooved; veins conspicuous, separate, straight, parallel to each other, slightly oblique, simple or rarely forked from base; fertile pinnae similar but margins subentire, serrulate only at apex; lamina gray-green, firmly herbaceous when dried, both surfaces glabrous. Indusia linear, pallid, membranous, subentire.

Pteris pseudodactylina Ching & S. K. Wu (Fl. Xizang. 1: 66-68. 1983) from SE Xizang is closely related, differing by the wider sterile pinnae, ca. 1 cm wide, with larger cartilaginous marginal teeth and fertile fronds with the 3 central pinnae decurrent at base.

Pteris gracillima Ching & S. K. Wu (Fl. Xizang. 1: 65-66. 1983) from SE Xizang is also closely related. It is described as a more delicate plant, 13-28 cm tall, with 3-pinnulate fronds, the pinnae 8-22 × ca. 0.4 cm, with the lateral pinnae much shorter than the terminal pinna, and the margins of the sterile pinnae undulate or sinuate, not toothed. Pteris stenophylla is also rather similar to P. gracillima but has pinnae more equal in length and ca. 1 cm wide.

1800-2700 m (in Taiwan). Guizhou (Fanjing Shan), Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal].