Plants 60-70 cm tall. Rhizome erect, short, 1-2 cm in diam., apex with black-brown scales. Fronds clustered (8-12 per plant); stipe dark straw-colored, slightly lustrous, 15-20 cm × ca. 2 mm, ± rough, with sparse gray bristles when young, bristles deciduous; rachis similar to stipe; lamina 2-pinnatipartite, oblong or broadly lanceolate in outline, 30-50 × 12-15 cm, attenuate toward base and apex; lateral pinnae 10-15 pairs, opposite, ca. 5 cm apart at base, oblique, slightly shortly stalked, upper sessile; terminal pinna lanceolate, 7-10 × 2-2.5 cm, wider at base, shortly stalked, base broadly cuneate, upward attenuate, apex narrowly linear-caudate, 1.5-4 cm; segments 15-20 pairs, alternate or subopposite, subspreading, 1-2 mm apart, linear, 5-12 × ca. 2.5 mm, slightly expanded at base, margins entire and with cartilaginous edge, apex obtuse and with 2-7(-12) small teeth; costae abaxially convex, straw-colored, with sparse multicellular gray bristles, adaxially deeply grooved, with narrow ridges on both sides along groove, with a spine at bifurcation of costa of segments; veins conspicuous and prominent on both surfaces, contiguous, oblique, 2-forked; lamina brown-green to pale green, herbaceous when dried.

The authors have not seen material of Pteris decrescens var. remotipinnulata Ching (Sinensia 1: 10. 1929).

Evergreen forests; 700-1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan [Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam].