Plants 30-50 cm tall. Rhizome ascending or prostrate, slender, 4-5 mm in diam., apex with black-brown scales. Fronds dense, dimorphic; sterile fronds 1.5-2(-3) cm apart, shorter than fertile fronds; stipe and rachis straw-colored, slightly lustrous, stipe 10-30 cm (stipes of sterile fronds shorter), 1.5-2 mm in diam., glabrescent; lamina oblong-ovate, 10-25 × 5-15 cm, pinnate to bipinnate; pinnae 2-6 pairs, opposite, slightly decumbent, upper ones sessile, lower pairs shortly stalked; sterile fronds often pinnate, triangular in outline, 2.5-3.5(-8) × 1.5-2.5(-8) cm, acuminate; pinnules (1 or)2 or 3 pairs, opposite, contiguous, sessile, decumbent, oblong-oblanceolate to broadly lanceolate, basally decurrent and entire, upward and apices with acute teeth, apex obtuse; pinnae of fertile fronds distant (basal pairs 5-7 cm apart), 1-3-forked, middle fork longest, apical pinnae not decurrent at base, basal two pairs sometimes pinnate; pinnules 2 or 3(or 4) pairs, decumbent, narrowly linear, basally decurrent, margins entire except at apices, sterile parts with dense teeth, apically acuminate; midvein straw-colored, adaxially prominent; veins dense, often forked; lamina gray-green to brown-green, sometimes with nearly white bands along each side of midvein, herbaceous when dried, glabrous. n = 58.

Wet acidic soils beneath forests, streamsides; 100-1000 m. Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, SW Guizhou, Hainan, S Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Yunnan, S Zhejiang [Bhutan, Cambodia, N India, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, Pacific islands (Fiji, Polynesia)].